Response of the austrian legal order to the coronavirus pandemic

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus pandemic has tested not only the legal foundations of fundamental rights in Austria, but also the awareness of them. A study by the Sigmund Freud University 2020 states that Austrians’ unfamiliarity with their rights is due to their fragmented and stratified constitution and the lack of a catalog of fundamental rights. The dynamic and early work of the Constitutional Court during the Covid-19 crisis has helped to promote the interest of the citizenry, which has been affected in a whole range of freedoms, such as movement and residence, exercising a profession, assembly, the right to private and family life, property, data protection, education and equality. Although for reasons of space it is not appropriate in this paper to address the defense of each right, the reader will get an impression of the challenges, legal and procedural shortcomings of the Austrian legal framework in the face of interim measures to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 disease. In this context, the versatility and agility with which the centuries-old Constitution and its Constitutional Court have responded in defense of fundamental rights is positively surprising. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.