Zur Novellierung des österreichischen Volksgruppengesetzes: Eine Stellungnahme im Auftrag der Rechtswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Wien

Summary

This article contains a statement of the Law Faculty of Vienna University, as requested by the Austrian Federal Chancellory, regarding the Chancellor's spring 2012 draft amendment to the Austrian Law on National Minorities. Its author commences by expressing regret that the draft proposal which had been presented by a group of experts on behalf of the Austrian Centre for Ethnic Groups in 2009 had hardly been considered by the Chancellory. The statement then deals with those areas which were going to be altered in the course of amending the Law on National Minorities, namely the general provisions (definition of "Volksgruppe", general aims), the reform of the Ethnic Group Advisory Councils, the creation of a Forum of Ethnic Group Advisory Concils and the "recommendations" in the area of bilingual topography and the official languages, combined with fiscal support for national minorities.