http://www.ogh.gv.at/index.php?g_lng=en
The Supreme Court consists of a President, two Vice-Presidents (one of them female), thirteen Presidents of Panels (one of them female) and forty-two Judges (among them fourteen female). The members of the Supreme Court are (similar to the members of the Administrative Court) nominated by the Federal Government and at last appointed by the Federal President. Before the nomination, a special panel (Personalsenat) of the Supreme Court, consisting of the President, one Vice-President and three elected members, makes a formal proposal containing at least three candidates, in cases of more vacancies at least two names per vacancy. Although not binding, this proposal is usually followed by the Government.
It is a matter of course that all judges of the Supreme Court enjoy all guarantees of judicial independence as foreseen in the Austrian Constitution.
The Supreme Court sits in seventeen panels, six of them dealing with criminal matters, ten having jurisdiction in civil cases, and one hearing appeals against decisions of the Competition Court (antitrust matters). Civil cases include matters of labour and social security law (unlike for instance the German judiciary system where specialized courts are competent in these matters). If labour or social security cases are to be decided, two members of the panel are substituted by lay judges nominated by the Federal Economic Chamber and the Federal Chamber of Labour.
The Supreme Court regularly sits in panels of five members one of them reporting the case and preparing a draft of the decision. In certain cases of minor importance (for instance motions for a transfer of jurisdiction) the size of the panel is reduced to three members. If a panel intends to depart from an established line of precedent and also in cases of divergent decisions by two or more panels of the Supreme Court the Supreme Court Act (OGH-Gesetz 1968) requires a special procedure. The case is to be brought before an enlarged panel consisting of the originally competent regular panel of five judges and six additional members selected according to seniority. In this regard, there is no difference between civil and criminal cases. There is a difference, however, as to the use of hearings. While such hearings are extremely rare in civil matters (the case being decided on the basis of written submissions instead) , one third of all appeals in criminal matters are decided on the basis of a special hearing in addition to written submissions, particularly when the appellant alleges errors in substantive law.
Under art. 87 of the Austrian Constitution the distribution of cases among the judges of a court has to be determined in advance and may be changed only in the event of a judge’s disability. In the Supreme Court, the panel, which is also competent to make proposals for the appointment of judges, draws up a case distribution plan every year under which cases are assigned to individual panels and judges.
The decisions in civil as well as in criminal matters are collected by a special department of the Supreme Court called Evidenzbüro. This section consists of a periodically changing staff of about ten trial judges temporarily assigned to the Supreme Court for the performance of certain assisting functions, it is supervised by two members of the Court. The main task of this section is to write short abstracts of the decisions. In the years from 1993 up to 1997, the traditional registration by a system of card-collection was changed to electronic registration, which presently includes about 130.000 abstracts. All decisions of the Supreme Court and the abstracts are accessible on the internet, free of charge (http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Jus/).
The Austrian Supreme Court, though permanently maintaining contact to universities, in large measure lacks support by a certain staff of scientific collaborators of its own disposition. The unsatisfactory situation in this respect is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the Supreme Court (as mentioned above consisting of 58 judges) has to work with only 35 additional administrative employees. The administrative duties for all civil panels together for example are performed by one small department with only three employees, the (single) office for the criminal panels only has a staff of two.
In addition to the review proceedings in the field of ordinary adjudication the Supreme Court has some other competences, for instance comments to legislative drafts, decisions in disciplinary matters of judges, notaries and (in special committees including members of the bar) lawyers, and proposals for the nomination of judges in leading positions.
