III.D An Outline of Austrian Criminal Law¹¹Due to the extensive nature of the subject, and despite careful editing, inaccuracies cannot be excluded and no liability is assumed.

by Alexia Stuefer translated by Andrea Hubalek

Introduction

In accordance with the tradition of Continental European law, substantive Austrian criminal law is based on statute produced by Parliament.²²This chapter deals with criminal laws enforced by the courts. Administrative offences, which are dealt with by the administrative authorities, are not covered. The most important source of law is the Strafgesetzbuch, the Austrian Criminal Code (hereinafter StGB), which entered into force on 1 January 1975. It consists of an extensive catalogue of offences and, in its General Part, gives principles for resolving specific conflict situations, which may be summarised into a case resolution scheme. Other catalogues of offences that are of practical relevance can be found, for example, in the Act on Tax Offences (Finanzstrafgesetz) and the Narcotic Drugs Act (Suchtmittelgesetz). In addition, specific criminal offences are regulated by the so-called Materiengesetze, i.e. statutes that regulate specific areas and are intended to ensure the viability of those areas by means of criminal law, such as the