CELEX: 62009CN0118
Language: en
Date: 2009-04-01 00:00:00
Title: Case C-118/09: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Oberste Berufungs- und Disziplinarkommission (Austria) lodged on 1 April 2009 — Robert Koller v Rechtsanwaltsprüfungskommission beim Oberlandesgericht Graz

20.6.2009   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 141/28
            
         Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Oberste Berufungs- und Disziplinarkommission (Austria) lodged on 1 April 2009 — Robert Koller v Rechtsanwaltsprüfungskommission beim Oberlandesgericht Graz
   (Case C-118/09)
   2009/C 141/48
   Language of the case: German
   
      Referring court
   
   Oberste Berufungs- und Disziplinarkommission
   
      Parties to the main proceedings
   
   
      Applicant: Robert Koller
   
      Defendant: Rechtsanwaltsprüfungskommission beim Oberlandesgericht Graz
   
      Questions referred
   
   
               1.
            
            
               Is Directive 89/48/EEC (1) applicable to the case of an Austrian national if he
               
                           (a)
                        
                        
                           successfully completed his diploma course in law in Austria and was awarded by decision the academic degree of ‘Magister der Rechtswissenschaften’,
                        
                     
                           (b)
                        
                        
                           after taking supplementary examinations at a Spanish university, which however involved less than three years of study, was then granted, by a certificate of recognition from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kingdom of Spain, the entitlement to use the Spanish title ‘Licenciado en Derecho’, which is equivalent to the Austrian title, and
                        
                     
                           (c)
                        
                        
                           by registering with the Madrid Chamber of Lawyers gained the entitlement to use the professional title ‘abogado’ and actually pursued the profession of a lawyer in Spain for three weeks before making the application and for five months at the most before the first instance decision?
                        
                     
         
               2.
            
            
               In the event that Question 1 is answered in the affirmative:
               Is it compatible with Directive 89/48/EEC to interpret Paragraph 24 of the Bundesgesetz über den freien Dienstleistungsverkehr und die Niederlassung von europäischen Rechtsanwälten in Österreich (Federal law on the free movement of services and the establishment of European lawyers in Austria, ‘EuRAG’) as meaning that obtaining an Austrian degree in law and attaining the entitlement to use the Spanish title ‘Licenciado en Derecho’ after taking supplementary examinations at a Spanish university over a period of less than three years of study is not sufficient for admission to the aptitude test in Austria under Paragraph 24(1) of the EuRAG without proof of the practice required under national law (Paragraph 2(2) of the Rechtsanwaltsordnung (Lawyers’ Code, ‘RAO’), even if the applicant has been admitted as an ‘abogado’ in Spain without a comparable requirement for practice and had pursued the profession there for three weeks before making the application and for five months at the most before the first instance decision?
            
         
      (1)  OJ 1989 L 19, p. 16