Austrian Law Explained: Codes, Courts and Key Rules (2026)

Austria and Germany share a language, but they do not share a legal system. The civil code that governs a lease, a will or an employment contract in Vienna is not the code that governs the same thing in Munich, and a search in German almost always returns the wrong country's answer first.

That is not a small caveat. It is the single most useful thing to know before reading anything else about Austrian law. German language legal information does not apply in Austria. The rest of this page explains why, and then walks through the codes, the courts and the citation conventions that make up Austria's own system.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Austrian law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Austria is not Germany

Austria is a fully independent state with its own parliament, its own courts and its own statute book. It was never part of unified Germany, and after 1945 the two countries developed their civil, criminal and social legislation along separate tracks. The shared language means an Austrian search query and a German search query often look identical, which is exactly what makes the trap so easy to fall into.

Three examples show how far the two systems have actually drifted apart.

Notice periods. An Austrian employee's statutory notice is governed by § 20 AngG, the Angestelltengesetz. The scale is different in its numbers and its logic from § 622 BGB, the German civil code provision that a search engine will hand a Vienna based reader by default. Quoting German notice periods to an Austrian employer or employee produces a wrong answer, not an approximate one.

Divorce. Austria never abolished fault based divorce.

§ 49 EheG still lets a spouse seek divorce on the ground that the other has culpably and seriously undermined the marriage through a grave breach of marital duty, dishonourable conduct or immoral behaviour, alongside a no fault route for spouses who agree and a breakdown route after a period of separation.

Germany, by contrast, abolished the fault principle decades ago and now divorces almost exclusively on the single ground of breakdown. An Austrian divorce lawyer still has to plead and prove fault in a contested case in a way a German one no longer does.

Inheritance tax. Austria has none. The Verfassungsgerichtshof struck down the old inheritance and gift tax provisions in 2007, and the legislature let the tax lapse rather than fix it, so no inheritance or gift tax has applied in Austria since 1 August 2008. Germany kept its Erbschaftsteuer- und Schenkungsteuergesetz and still taxes larger estates and gifts. A page written for a German reader about minimizing inheritance tax is answering a question an Austrian heir does not have, though a transfer of inherited real estate can still trigger the Grunderwerbsteuer, the property transfer tax, and a land register entry fee, which are different taxes entirely.

The pattern repeats across nearly every topic this site covers. Tenancy sits in the MRG rather than the BGB's tenancy chapter. Debt enforcement runs through the EO and the IO, not Germany's ZPO and InsO.

Where a genuine comparison is useful, this site will say so explicitly. Otherwise, treat any claim about German law as irrelevant to an Austrian question, however similar the words sound.

The codes that hold Austrian law

Austria belongs to the Roman Germanic civil law family, like Germany, France and most of continental Europe. The legislature writes comprehensive codes intended to cover a whole field, and a dispute is resolved by identifying which section applies and what it means, rather than by reasoning outward from a chain of prior decisions the way a common law court would.

A handful of codes carry nearly everything an ordinary reader searches for.

The ABGB, the Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, is the civil code and the oldest still in force in Austria, dating to 1811. It covers contract law, property, neighbour relations, family law and inheritance, and it also carries the general personality rights, including the basis for civil claims over a person's own words or image under § 16.

The StGB, the Strafgesetzbuch, is the criminal code. It carries the offences this site follows most closely: unlawful recording under § 120, and the honour offences that make up Austrian defamation law, spread across üble Nachrede in § 111, Beleidigung in § 115, Kreditschädigung in § 152 and the false accusation offence, Verleumdung, in § 297.

The AngG, the Angestelltengesetz, sets notice periods and dismissal protection for salaried employees, with § 20 the most consulted provision in the whole code. The BMSVG, the Betriebliches Mitarbeiter und Selbständigenvorsorgegesetz, runs Abfertigung NEU, the portable severance fund described below.

The MRG, the Mietrechtsgesetz, governs residential tenancy alongside the ABGB, and it is where Austria's rules diverge most sharply from the anglophone norm. The EheG, the Ehegesetz, governs marriage and divorce, including the fault ground in § 49 discussed above.

Enforcement and insolvency split across the EO, the Exekutionsordnung, and the IO, the Insolvenzordnung, which is not the same statute as Germany's InsO or Switzerland's SchKG despite covering similar ground. Driving and traffic split across the FSG, the Führerscheingesetz, for licensing, and the StVO, the Straßenverkehrsordnung, for conduct on the road.

Data protection runs on the DSG, the Datenschutzgesetz, Austria's national companion to the GDPR, enforced by the Datenschutzbehörde. Because Austria is an EU member state, the GDPR itself applies directly in Austria, and the DSG fills in only what the regulation leaves to national law.

Media law sits in the MedienG, the Mediengesetz, which also carries this site's own transparency obligations toward Austrian readers. Online service providers, including this site, owe information duties to Austrian visitors under the ECG, the E Commerce Gesetz. Finally, the Tilgungsgesetz 1972 sets the schedule by which a criminal conviction stops appearing on an Austrian certificate of conduct.

Federal law, not nine versions of it

The most useful structural fact about Austrian law is how little of it varies across the country. Austria has nine Bundesländer, but employment, tenancy, family law, inheritance, debt enforcement, most of criminal law and data protection are federal statutes that apply identically whether the reader is in Vorarlberg or Vienna. A national answer is the right answer for almost every topic on this site.

Two exceptions are worth naming precisely, because they are the ones a reader is actually likely to hit.

Rent control reference values. Where the MRG's rent cap applies at all, the reference figure it is calculated from, the Richtwert, is set separately for each Bundesland and adjusted on a statutory valorization schedule rather than a fixed calendar date. The rule that sets the cap is federal. The number that fills it in is not, and it is different in each Land.

Quiet hours. Nachtruhe and general noise rules are not federal at all. They come from Landes- und Gemeinde-Polizeirecht, the police law each Land and municipality sets for itself, which is why the hours and the enforcement mechanism can differ from one town to the next even though the underlying neighbour law in the ABGB is national.

Beyond those two, day to day enforcement can look local even where the rule behind it is federal. A Bezirkshauptmannschaft, the district administrative authority, issues many of the certificates and processes many of the fines that a resident actually encounters, but the substance it is applying almost always comes from Vienna, not from the Land.

Which court hears what

Austria runs one main court ladder for civil and criminal matters, plus two separate apex courts for constitutional and administrative questions, and two specialist regulators that are not courts but come up constantly in ordinary legal questions.

The Bezirksgericht, the district court, is where most people's first contact with the justice system happens. It handles residential tenancy disputes, family law matters including divorce and maintenance, smaller civil claims, and the Verlassenschaftsverfahren, the probate process that follows a death.

Above it sits the Landesgericht, the regional court, then the Oberlandesgericht, the higher regional court, then the Oberster Gerichtshof, the OGH, Austria's apex court for civil and criminal matters, seated in Vienna.

Constitutional questions do not go through that ladder at all. The Verfassungsgerichtshof, the VfGH, rules on whether a law or an official act is compatible with the constitution, and it was the VfGH ruling that ended Austria's inheritance tax. The Verwaltungsgerichtshof, the VwGH, is the apex court for challenges to administrative decisions, separate again from both the ordinary courts and the VfGH.

Two regulators outside the court system matter enough to name here. The Datenschutzbehörde, the DSB, enforces the GDPR and the DSG and hears data protection complaints. The Bezirkshauptmannschaft, the district administrative authority found in every Land outside the statutory cities, issues driving licences, processes many traffic penalties and handles a wide range of everyday administrative certificates.

How to read an Austrian citation

Austrian legal references look dense at first glance but follow a completely consistent pattern, and the abbreviations are not interchangeable with Germany's even though several look similar.

The section sign § marks a numbered section of a statute. Abs is Absatz, a subsection. Z is Ziffer, a numbered item within a subsection, this is the point where Austrian usage genuinely departs from Germany's, which uses Nr for the same thing. lit is litera, a lettered sub item.

So § 21 Abs 1 Z 7 MRG reads as section 21, subsection 1, item 7, of the Mietrechtsgesetz, which happens to be the provision covering a landlord's management fee.

Art, article, is reserved for European Union instruments rather than domestic Austrian statutes. The GDPR right of access is written Art. 15 DSGVO, never as a § reference, because the DSGVO is an EU regulation rather than an Austrian Bundesgesetz.

Court decisions from the OGH are cited by court, date and case number, in the form OGH, date, senate number and case number, for example 6 Ob 123/20a. That case number is the reliable way to locate a ruling, since Austrian decisions are not named after the parties the way common law cases are.

One rule is worth stating as plainly as possible, because it is exactly where translated or copied content goes wrong: an Austrian statutory citation is never Anglicised and never translated. It is § 20 AngG in English language text exactly as it is in German language text, never rendered as the word Section followed by a number, and never rendered with Art in place of the section sign.

Features that surprise a newcomer

A handful of Austrian rules have no close German equivalent, and a reader arriving with German expectations will misjudge all of them.

The MRG applies in three tiers, not one. Vollanwendung, full application, covers most multi unit buildings whose building permit predates 1 July 1953, along with subsidized housing, and it comes with the strict rent cap and the strongest termination protection.

Teilanwendung, partial application, covers multi unit buildings built after mid 1953 without subsidy: the landlord still needs a statutory ground to end the tenancy, but there is no rent cap.

Vollausnahme, full exclusion, covers single and two family homes, employer tied housing, short lets under six months and holiday lets, where the ABGB's general contract rules apply instead of the MRG. Two buildings on the same street can sit in different tiers.

Abfertigung NEU has run as a portable fund since 1 January 2003. Rather than the older lump sum owed only after long, continuous service with one employer, an employer now pays 1.53 percent of an employee's monthly gross salary into a Vorsorgekasse, a dedicated fund, from the second month of employment. The balance moves with the employee from job to job and is never forfeited for leaving, which is why Austrians call it the Rucksackprinzip, the backpack principle.

Probate runs through a notary acting for the court, not a probate court itself. A Gerichtskommissär, a notary commissioned by the Bezirksgericht, conducts the Verlassenschaftsverfahren from the initial Todesfallaufnahme through to the Einantwortung, the court's formal transfer of the estate to the heirs. Austria has no equivalent of the German Erbschein, a document a bank or land registry can rely on directly, because the Einantwortung decision itself performs that role.

Driving demerits work on a warning system, not a points tally. § 30a FSG creates a Vormerksystem for a defined list of serious offences.

A first Vormerkung is a formal warning. A second within two years triggers a mandatory measure such as a retraining course. A third escalates to withdrawal of the licence.

It is structured entirely differently from a cumulative points register like Germany's, where points simply add up and expire on their own timeline.

Where the official law actually lives

Austria publishes its statute law free of charge, which puts primary sources within direct reach.

ris.bka.gv.at, the Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes, run for the Bundeskanzleramt, carries the consolidated text of every federal statute, from the ABGB to the newest amendment of the MRG, with stable links down to the individual Paragraf. It is the single most reliable source for anything with a § in front of it.

oesterreich.gv.at, the federal citizen portal, absorbed the older help.gv.at in 2019 and now covers the procedural side of most everyday legal questions: how to request a Strafregisterbescheinigung, how an uncontested divorce actually proceeds, how the Verlassenschaftsverfahren works from a family's point of view. justiz.gv.at covers the courts and enforcement directly, dsb.gv.at is the data protection regulator's own site, and the apex courts publish their own rulings at ogh.gv.at, vfgh.gv.at and vwgh.gv.at.

Two statutory chambers, the Arbeiterkammer for employees and the Wirtschaftskammer for businesses, publish detailed guidance from their respective sides of the employment relationship, and the Rechtsanwaltskammer, Austria's bar association, publishes practice guidance as well. All three are public law bodies rather than commercial competitors, and their material is worth reading even though this site does not simply repeat it.

A caution applies here just as it does in Germany. Commercial legal content sites compete hard for Austrian search terms, and several of the highest ranking ones answer with German law rather than Austrian law, or reproduce figures that have quietly gone stale. When a specific number or deadline matters, it is worth tracing it back to the statute or the official portal rather than trusting a ranking alone.

Values that move on a schedule

A number of the most searched Austrian legal figures are not fixed. They move on a recurring schedule, which means any page quoting one without a date attached to it should be treated with suspicion.

The Regelbedarfssätze, the reference amounts used as a ceiling when calculating child maintenance, are reissued each Jänner. They function as an upper reference point, not a statutory minimum, since Austrian child maintenance has no statutory floor at all.

The Richtwerte, the per Bundesland rent reference values under the MRG, move on their own statutory valorization schedule rather than a fixed calendar date, and the figure differs by Land even on the same adjustment date.

Beyond the recurring figures, Austria has live legislative activity worth watching in exactly the areas where this page draws the sharpest contrast with Germany: a working group is examining changes to the fault based divorce framework, and the pandemic era shortened timeline for personal insolvency reverted to its longer, pre pandemic default in the summer of 2026. Neither of those is settled law yet in the reform's case, and both are worth rechecking against a current source before relying on them.

The Austrian sections of this site

This hub is the entry point for a growing set of Austria specific sections, organised the way a reader actually experiences the problem rather than by which code happens to hold the rule.

Eleven sections are live now. The criminal records section covers the Strafregisterbescheinigung, Austria's most searched legal term, how to obtain it, the flat fee that took effect in 2026, and the deletion schedule under the Tilgungsgesetz 1972. The family law section covers child maintenance under the percentage method Austrian courts use to apply § 231 ABGB, spousal maintenance, and divorce under all three of Austria's routes.

The employment section covers notice periods under § 20 AngG, severance pay under the Abfertigung system, and ending a job by mutual agreement or resignation. The tenancy section covers the three tier MRG, the operating costs a landlord may pass on under § 21, ending a tenancy, and eviction.

The inheritance section covers probate through the notary led Verlassenschaftsverfahren, writing a will, the compulsory share, and why there has been no inheritance tax since 2008. The debt and insolvency section covers debt collection and its capped Inkasso costs, enforcement under the EO, and personal insolvency.

The traffic section covers the Vormerksystem that decides when a licence is withdrawn, the drink driving limits and penalties, and the on-the-spot fines ladder from an Organmandat to a Straferkenntnis.

The recording section covers recording conversations under § 120 StGB, where a participant recording their own conversation is generally not the crime but sharing it can be, and video surveillance assessed directly under the GDPR. The defamation section covers Verleumdung, Austria's knowingly false criminal reporting offence, and üble Nachrede with the honour offences. The data protection section covers the GDPR and the DSG, including Austria's rule that the authority imposes no fines on public bodies, and how to file a complaint at the DSB.

The neighbour law section covers noise and neighbour disputes under the ABGB immissions rules (§§ 364 to 364b), and explains why quiet hours are set locally by each Land and municipality rather than by a single national statute.

Austria and this site

Recording Law follows recording, surveillance, privacy and defamation law closely, and Austria is a distinctive jurisdiction in all three, not a smaller copy of Germany's.

Secretly recording a private conversation is governed by § 120 StGB, and the provision draws a line most newcomers do not expect. A participant recording their own conversation is not, by itself, the crime the section describes, because § 120 Abs 1 protects an utterance not meant for the listener's own knowledge, and a participant is exactly the person the words were meant for. Sharing or publishing that recording without the speaker's consent is a separate offence under § 120 Abs 2, carrying the same penalty, even where the recording itself broke no law. A civil claim under § 16 ABGB's personality rights can still reach a secret recording that the criminal law does not touch, so "not a crime" is not the same as "no risk." See the full country page at Austria recording laws.

Austrian defamation law is split across several offences rather than one. § 297 StGB Verleumdung punishes knowingly making a false accusation likely to expose someone to prosecution by an authority, which is a different wrong from ordinary reputational harm.

Reputational harm itself splits between üble Nachrede in § 111, for an unproven claim, and Beleidigung in § 115, for a bare insult, with a separate provision, § 152, protecting businesses from credit damaging falsehoods. The Mediengesetz adds its own compensation regime for media publications.

See the full country page at Austria defamation laws.

On data protection, Austria applies the GDPR directly alongside its own DSG, and the Datenschutzbehörde is the single regulator for the whole country, unlike Germany's split between a federal authority and one supervisory authority per Land. See the full country page at Austria data privacy laws.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Austrian law the same as German law?

No. Austria and Germany are separate legal systems with separate codes. The civil code is the ABGB in Austria and the BGB in Germany, employment notice periods run under different statutes, divorce keeps a fault ground in Austria that Germany abolished, and Austria abolished inheritance tax in 2008 while Germany still levies one. Content written for a German reader routinely gives the wrong answer for an Austrian one.

Does Austrian law vary by Bundesland?

For almost everything covered on this site, no. Employment, tenancy, family, inheritance, debt, criminal law and data protection are federal statutes that apply identically in all nine Bundesländer. The genuine exceptions are the rent control reference values under the MRG, which are set per Bundesland, and quiet hours, which are set by Land or municipal police law.

What is the ABGB?

The Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch is Austria's civil code, in force since 1811 and still the foundation for contract, property, family and inheritance law, alongside newer statutes such as the MRG for tenancy and the EheG for divorce.

Which court handles a divorce or a tenancy dispute in Austria?

Both start at the Bezirksgericht, the district court, which also handles probate and smaller civil claims. General civil and criminal appeals run from the Landesgericht to the Oberlandesgericht and then to the Oberster Gerichtshof, while constitutional questions go to the Verfassungsgerichtshof and challenges to administrative decisions go to the Verwaltungsgerichtshof.

What does Z mean in an Austrian legal citation?

Z stands for Ziffer, a numbered item within a subsection. Austrian usage differs from Germany's here: German citations use Nr for the same thing. Abs stands for Absatz, a subsection, and lit stands for litera, a lettered item. Art is reserved for European Union instruments, such as Art. 15 DSGVO for the GDPR right of access.

Is inheritance taxed in Austria?

No. Austria abolished inheritance and gift tax on 1 August 2008, after the Verfassungsgerichtshof struck down the previous rules the year before. Real estate transferred through an estate can still trigger the property transfer tax (GrEStG) and a registration fee, which are separate from inheritance tax.

Where can I read Austrian statutes for free?

The Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes at ris.bka.gv.at publishes the consolidated text of every federal statute at no cost, including the ABGB, the StGB and the MRG, with links to individual sections. The citizen portal oesterreich.gv.at covers procedures such as requesting a Strafregisterbescheinigung or starting a divorce.

Is secretly recording a conversation legal in Austria?

Recording a private conversation you are personally taking part in is not a crime under § 120 StGB, because the provision protects words not meant for the listener's own ears. Sharing or publishing that recording without the other speaker's consent is a separate criminal offence under the same section, and a civil personality rights claim under § 16 ABGB can still apply even when no crime was committed.