Austrian law resources

This is not an attempt to muscle in on Adrian’s territory (he’s in Vienna), just something that came up today. What resources are there for researching Austrian law?

I can recommend a few books, but not much online.

Quoting the ISBNs I have, but the books may be either out of print or in new editions:

The Duden paperback Wie sagt man in Österreich? 1980, 3 411 01794 5 (much less used, my copy, than Wie sagt man in der Schweiz?)

Staatsbürgerkunde und Recht. Arbeitsbuch für höhere und mittlere berufsbildende Schulen, Oberleitner and Hellner, 1994, 3 214 90536 8 – not a dictionary, but it has diagrams and a good index, and is logically set out, and has a few standard documents. I have found terms in it.

The rest are more likely in print:
Russwurm and Schoeller, Österreichisches Rechtswörterbuch, 2nd ed. 3 85131 067 5

Abkürzungs- und Zitierregeln der österreichisches Rechtssprache und europarechtlicher Rechtsquellen, 5th ed. 2001, 3 214 06205 0

Hausmaninger, The Austrian Legal System, 1998, 3 214 00239 2 (Manz – there is a Kluwer ISBN too)There is an Österreichisches Wörterbuch (3 215 12653 2), a one-volume general dictionary, which has very rarely helped me if at all, and there is the Doucet-Fleck Wörterbuch der Rechts- und Wirtschaftssprache, DE>FR, which has more Swiss and Austrian terms in it than any other bilingual dictionary I know, but it obviously helps if you know French. Here are the details quoted from the Aticom site (one of the German translators’ associations – some dictionary reviews on that site).

Doucet/Fleck
Wörterbuch der Rechts- und Wirtschaftssprache
Dictionnaire juridique et économique
Teil 2: de-fr
Verlag C.H. Beck/Vahlen, 80791 München,
6., neubearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. 2001, rund 850 Seiten
In Leinen DEM 130,- / EUR 67,-, ISBN 3-406-48058-6

Online: http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/ (Bundeskanzleramt, with links to statutes – I quote some of their information in English):

bq. a) Federal law
This database covers Austrian federal law (some 98,5 %). Amendments are incorporated as soon as they are promulgated so that the database always contains the applicable version of a document (one document: 1 section or 1 article or 1 annex). In addition to the applicable version, many norms also offer the opportunity to access previous versions, making it possible for the user to reconstruct the development of the regulation.

bq. b) Federal Law Gazette
This databases contain all issues of the Federal Law Gazette published since 1983 in their original versions (HTML) and also in the PDF-version (which is operated by Wiener Zeitung since 1994). The databases are permanently updated.

bq. c) State law
As a result of the cooperation with the offices of the State (regional) governments, this database contains the law of the following Austrian States:
– Burgenland
– Carinthia
– Lower Austria
– Salzburg
– Styria
– Tyrol
– Upper Austria
– Vienna
– Vorarlberg

Cardiff University has some links, but many of them are dead.

There are more sites, but none looks very promising. I probably won’t find out any more till I have another Austrian term to research.

More suggestions welcomed!

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