ABSTRACT
The Austrian idea of effective legal protection has its roots in the political liberalism of the nineteenth century. In the time of absolute monarchy, the administration was not bound by law and there was subsequently no legal possibility to appeal before a court in administrative matters. Due to the fact that the administrative procedure was not codified by the parliament, the progressive case law of the Administrative Court became very important. The Court developed several substantive rule of law principles that an administrative procedure had to be in accordance with and that administrative bodies had to follow if they did not want to risk their decision being declared unlawful by the Administrative Court. The Austrian legal system’s adoption of European standards finally led to the introduction of administrative courts of first instance in 2014, which is a decisive change to the overall constitutional system of judicial protection in Austria.
