Judicial Review of Administrative Action in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Formative Years (1890-1910)

The purpose of this paper is to identify the standards of judicial control over administrative activity developed by the Austrian Administrative Court between the late XIX and early XX centuries. This analysis will highlight the considerable development of administrative law as early as the end of the nineteenth century. Indeed, even at that time the Austrian Administrative Court had elaborated a series of principles for administrative action on the basis of which to carry out judicial review. For this purpose, the paper will analyze various emblematic cases decided by the Verwaltungsgerichtshof.