Короткий опис(реферат):
Статтю присвячено аналізу підходів до юридичного тлумачення в австрійській правовій системі.
Здійснено огляд методів тлумачення, які використовуються австрійськими судами загалом і конкретно стосовно тлумачення договорів. Аналіз проведено в порівнянні з аналогічними підходами
в німецькій правовій системі. Австрійські традиційні позитивістські напрацювання порівнюються
з новими підходами з теорії природного права, які мають німецьке коріння.
Суть розробки, основні результати:
Austrian and German systems of law are often confused given the common past, similar traditions,
language, as well as many other features both systems share. Nevertheless, Austrian system has many
different features, specifically in the field of legal interpretation. This article provides an overview of these
differences with a focus on analysis of the approaches to legal interpretation in Austrian legal system.
Specifically, the article provides an overview of the interpretation techniques applied by Austrian courts
regarding the interpretation in general and the interpretation of contracts. Comparison is made to similar
approaches in German legal system. Austrian well established positivist ideas are compared to the newly
emerged natural law theory approaches supposedly derived from the German legal thought.
The most significant differences, apart from German natural law basis and Austrian positivist basis, are
as follow: 1. Existence of the state intention concept in German law as compared to Austrian law;
2. Existence of two main interpretation schools in Austria (the older school basing its ideas on positivism,
and the newer school basing its ideas on the reception of German approaches); 3. Limitation of scholars’
influence on the decisions of Austrian public bodies (including court decisions), while German legal system
includes numerous cases where courts turn to scholars’ ideas in the interpretation process.
Statutory interpretation in Austria rests mostly on positivist grounds where preference is given to the
literal dictionary based meaning of the text. Austrian approach to contract interpretation, unlike the
approach to statutory interpretation where preference to positivist tradition in the form of textualist
interpretation, is not much different from German approach providing a higher value to intentions of parties
to the contract than to the literal meaning of the plain text of the agreement they concluded.
