Karl Korinek

Karl Korinek (7 December 1940 – 9 March 2017) was an Austrian constitutional scholar and educator. Korinek taught law at the University of Graz, the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the University of Vienna, and the University for Continuing Education Krems. In 1978, Korinek was appointed to the Austrian Constitutional Court; he served as the president of the court from 2003 until his retirement in 2008.

Although a member of the Austrian People's Party and an outspoken conservative in private life, Korinek was considered non-partisan in his jurisprudence. He clashed with Wolfgang Schüssel on health care and immigration reform and with Jörg Haider on minority protection matters; he received praise from political opponents for his firm stance on human rights issues in general. Korinek has authored several books and more than 250 scholarly papers. Respected across party boundaries, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential legal scholars in recent Austrian history.

Early life

Karl Korinek was born on 12 December 1940 in Vienna as the son of Franz Korinek, a lawyer and future politician, and his wife Viktoria.

Korinek grew up Catholic. The family was conservative; Korinek's father joined the Austrian People's Party after the end of World War II and went on to become General Secretary of the Austrian Economic Chamber, the national entrepreneurs' and industrialists' advocacy group; he later also served as the minister of finance for a term.

Korinek received his secondary education at the Gymnasium Mariahilf, a school with special emphasis on the classical humanities.

Starting in 1997, he also taught at the Danube University Krems. He also served on the boards of directors of a number of publicly traded companies and NGOs, most notably the Uniqa Insurance Group and the ERSTE Foundation.

In 1998, he was invited to join the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

In early 2003, the cabinet of then-Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel launched the Austria Convention , a conference of legal scholars and public intellectuals tasked with drafting a new constitution for Austria. The existing constitution, exceptionally bulky and difficult to navigate, had been posing serious technical challenges to legislators and constitutional justices for decades. The Convention was charged with exploring reform. Korinek was a member of the Convention from its launch to its conclusion in 2005.

Effective May 2008, Korinek retired from the court, citing health reasons.

Over the course of his career, Korinek wrote several books and more than 250 scholarly articles.

Korinek is acknowledged as having been one of the Constitutional Court's most influential members during his tenure; he may in fact have been one of the court's most influential members in the institution's entire history. Commentators credit Korinek with having played a significant role in modernizing the tribunal's jurisprudence on constitutional rights questions; the court itself agrees. Korinek is said to have played a prominent role in shaping the minds of several generations of Austrian jurists.

He has been called the "doyen" of Austrian legal scholarship and one of the most distinguished personalities in the country's legal history.

Politics

Korinek was regarded as a committed conservative. Like his father before him, he joined the Austrian People's Party; he remained a card-carrying supporter when he was appointed to the Constitutional Court and only withdrew from membership when he was promoted to president. He was active in the Vienna Catholic Academy and in the Association of Catholic Graduates .

Korinek's promotion to president of the Constitutional Court was part of an attempt by then-Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel to move the court to the right. His outspoken conservatism and the circumstances of his promotion nonwithstanding, Korinek quickly acquired a reputation for integrity and non-partisan jurisprudence; he came to be widely respected across party lines. During Korinek's tenure as its president, the Constitutional Court overturned several key pieces of Schüssel's legislative agenda. Also during Korinek's presidency, the court sided with Slovenian minority right activists in the , a long-running dispute about Slovenian language rights that Jörg Haider's Freedom Party had been using to stoke populist resentment. The decision, easily the most controversial in the institution's history, earned Korinek Haider's and the Freedom Party's lasting enmity.

Korinek became known for a number of signature positions that received praise from both sides of the political spectrum. He advocated for transparency in government, called for an overhaul of Austria's outsized and convoluted constitution, and demanded that legislators put craftsmanship before ideology in drafting statutes. His criticism of Austria's data retention program proved well founded when, in 2014, the European Court of Justice declared it illegal under European human rights rules.

Personal life

Korinek was married for most of his adult life. He was survived by two children. Starting in 1999, he served on the board of directors of the opera, one of a handful of positions he did not retire from even when he was made the president of the Constitutional Court.

Korinek also published a book on the life and times of Julius Raab, which became a local bestseller. 2003: Honorary Doctorate of the University of Salzburg 2006: Commander's Cross with Star of the Decoration of Honor for Services to the State of Lower Austria 2006: Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria 2015: Cardinal Innitzer Award for Scholarly Achievement of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna

Selected publications

Legal

Other