page_title: Judiciary of Austria
section_title: Supreme Court of Justice
hierarchical_section_title: Judiciary of Austria / General courts / Supreme Court of Justice
caption_attribution_description: The Justizpalast in Vienna.
context_page_description: The Judiciary of Austria is the branch of the Austrian government responsible for resolving disputes between residents or between residents and the government, holding criminals accountable, making sure that the legislative and executive branches remain faithful to the European and Austrian constitutions and to international human rights standards, and generally upholding the rule of law.
  The judiciary is independent of the other two branches of government and is committed to guaranteeing fair trials and equality before the law. It has broad and effective powers of judicial review.
  Structurally, the Austrian judiciary is divided into general courts and courts of public law.
  The general courts handle civil and criminal trials as well as non-adversary proceedings such as inheritance cases or legal guardianship matters.
  The courts of public law supervise the other two branches of government: the administrative court system reviews the legality of administrative acts; the Constitutional Court adjudicates on complaints regarding the constitutionality of statutes, the legality of ordinances, and the conduct of elected officials and political appointees in office.
context_section_description: The Supreme Court of Justice (Oberster Gerichtshof or OGH) hears appeals at law (Revisionen in civil trials, Nichtigkeitsbeschwerden in criminal cases) against verdicts of appellate courts.
  The court also deals with service-related complaints by jurists against the judiciary and with disciplinary complaints against jurists; it acts as
  the trial court in cases involving certain senior judges and prosecutors, as an appeals court in cases involving lower-level judges and prosecutors, attorneys, and notaries.
  In addition to its adjudicative responsibilities, the court is charged with running the Republic's official public law library (the Zentralbibliothek). On the request of the president of the court or the minister of justice, the court produces appraisals of draft legislation presented to the National Council by the government.
  The court does not have a fixed number of justices; it consists of a president, a vice president, and as many additional members as Court and cabinet deem necessary and appropriate. As of the early 21st century, there are typically between fifty and sixty judges on the court.
  As of August 2018, there are 61.
  The court is partitioned into 18 panels (Senate) of five members each.
  One panel exclusively deals with appeals decisions reached by arbitration tribunals; another panel hears to appeals to antitrust verdicts handed down by the Vienna higher regional court, which has specialist exclusive jurisdiction over all Austrian antitrust cases. A third panel handles disciplinary proceedings and other disputes internal to the judiciary. Of the remaining fifteen panels, ten deal with civil cases and five with criminal trials.
  The responsibility for appointing justices is vested in the president, but the president can and usually does delegate this task to the minister of justice. The court maintains a special personnel committee (German: Personalsenat) that provides the minister with a shortlist of three candidates in the event of a vacancy. In theory, the minister may appoint any Austrian legally qualified to sit the bench and not excluded by the constitution's rudimentary incompatibility provisions. In practice, the minister dependably picks one of the three candidates nominated by the court.
  The Supreme Court of Justice convenes in the Palace of Justice in Vienna.
caption: The Palace of Justice, seat of the Supreme Court of Justice since 1881
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