1.1 The legal structure of the Republic of Austria

The City of Vienna is both the national capital of Austria and one of Austria’s federal provinces (Bundesländer). With a total size of 414 square kilometres and a population of about 1.92 million, it is by far the largest municipality in the country, and serves as the seat of many international organisations.

The following overview on the structure of the Republic of Austria, its federal provinces and municipalities is to allow for a complete understanding of the City of Vienna's role and place within the federal state of Austria.

Austria is a federal state consisting of nine federal provinces. Its constitution is typically republican-democratic and is based on a (moderately) federalist structure.

The federal state (in constitutional terms: the superordinate state; in Austria colloquially known as "Bund", i.e. "the federation") is in charge of key tasks such as federal legislation, external and defence policies as well as general jurisdiction.

The Republic is divided into nine federal provinces, which are also vested with legislative and executive powers.

The municipalities are the smallest units in the state organisation and as such have no legislative powers. However, they are entitled to issue general regulations (ordinances) and in practice perform many public administrative tasks. They are independent administrative bodies, i.e. their own sphere of competence is defined in and "protected" by the federal constitution. They are not subject to directions from other authorities or institutions in this field, notwithstanding the fact that they are under state supervision.

Local and regional authorities

The federal state, the nine federal provinces and the municipalities are referred to as local or regional authorities. Local and regional authorities are legal entities under public law comprising all members of the population who have a geographic relationship to the given authority’s geographic area (e.g. by their place of residence or physical presence in that area).

Regional authorities rely on a number of bodies to fulfil their tasks. Most of these bodies are elected, others (such as the municipal council offices and city administrations) consist of elected bodies, (e.g. political representatives elected for a term of office) as well as nominated or contracted employees.

The bodies representing local and regional authorities are called general representation bodies ("Allgemeine Vertretungskörper"). Specifically, these bodies are the National Assembly, provincial parliaments, municipal councils and, in Vienna only, the district councils (click here for further information on district councils in German language).

Separation of powers

The Austrian constitution is based on the principle of separation of powers. This means that administration is separate from the judiciary and the legislation (which is in the hands of the National Assembly and Federal Assembly at the federal level; and of provincial parliaments at the provincial level) .

• General jurisdiction is a federal matter.
• Federal or provincial laws may, however, provide for cases in which appeals against administrative decisions are to be submitted directly to courts of general jurisdiction instead of filing a complaint with the administrative court.
• Despite the principle of separation of powers, legislative bodies can assume certain administrative tasks and have certain participation rights.
• It should also be noted that the "general representation bodies" operating at the municipal level, i.e. the municipal councils, are not considered legislative bodies.