The Graz Law Working Paper Series was launched in fall 2020 with the aim of reflecting the breadth and quality of legal research at the Faculty of Law of the University of Graz (REWI Uni Graz) and to provide a broad academic audience with early, free access to this research. The series includes legal research by faculty members of the REWI Uni Graz, doctoral students and visiting scholars. All fields of law are invited to contribute to the series, including public law, private law, comparative law and interdisciplinary approaches.
The question of whether employees are free to organize their leisure time independently or must consider their employer’s interests harbors great potential for conflict. The interest in undisturbed privacy stands in opposition to numerous economic interests. On the one hand, the employee is always in a weaker position due to dependency on a personal level and therefore enjoys social protection under labor law. On the other hand, the employer should not be restricted in their economic advancement. Regardless, a normative restriction on their position of power is necessary in order to prevent attempts of abuse. Doctrine and legal practice in Austrian labor law have been trying to balance these competing interests for decades. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to draw a line between private and working life due to the progressive intertwining of the two circumstances.
This article uses theoretical approaches and relevant case law to address whether employers can influence how employees organize their private lives outside work hours. It examines the extent to which legal requirements guarantee the protection of the employee's privacy, how the employee must balance their leisure activities with the interests of the employer and what options of control and sanctions are available to the employer.
2024
10-2024 Relevance of Off-Duty Conduct under Labor Law
by Paul Schweighofer
09-2024 Some preliminary considerations on legal personhood for nonhuman and future entities
by Christian Hiebaum
08-2024 Hunting Unicorns: Administrative Court Settlements in EU Law
by Paul Gragl
07-2024 Protection of fundamental rights in public commercial law: occupational freedom and entrepreneurial freedom
by Sebastian Scholz
06-2024 Balancing Freedom of Expression and Objectivity: Comparing Social Media Guidelines in Public Broadcasting at ORF, WDR and BBC
by Lorenz Tripp
05-2024 Legal requirements for risk assessments in cases of violence in the social neighbourhood
by Sebastian Gölly
04-2024 Organised Islam as a recognised religious society - challenge and limits of the Islam Act 2015
by Stephan Hinghofer-Szalkay
03-2024 The Emergence of Constitutionally Conforming Interpretation
by Daniel Christian Gosch
02-2024 The entanglement of substantive law and the law of evidence. The proof of causality as an example of a fundamental problem
by David Messner-Kreuzbauer
01-2024 Independence, pluralism and non-partisanship of public broadcasting bodies in Austria
by Matthias Lukan
2023
23-2023 Fostering Systemic Thinking with Simulation Games in Legal Education
by Sascha Ferz and Elisabeth Hödl
22-2023 Der Gewerbebegriff. Szenen einer Entwicklung
by Jürgen Pirker
21-2023 “Objectivity of Law”: ECtHR vs Russian Constitutional Court
by Ksenia Radchenkova
20-2023 Ein materialistisches Friedenskonzept nach Spinoza für eine effektivere Friedensarbeit
by Maximilian Lakitsch
19-2023 Mieterschutz im Wohnraummietrecht – Historisch- Vergleichendes zur Entwicklung in Deutschland und Österreich
by Walter Doralt
18-2023 The Transfer of Facebook, Instagram, Icloud Accounts, etc., in Germany and Austria (La transmission des comptes Facebook, Instagram, Icloud, etc., en Allemagne et en Autriche)
by Gregor Christandl
17-2023 Flexible Kapitalgesellschaften – Stellungnahme zum FlexKapG-Entwurf im Gesellschaftsrechts-Änderungsgesetz 2023
by Walter Doralt
16-2023 Unpacking the Anthropocene: The Good, the Evil and the Critical Reading
by Maximilian Lakitsch
15-2023 Detecting Resale Price Maintenance for Competition Law Purposes: Proof-of-Concept Study Using Web Scraped Data
by Jan Amthauer, Jürgen Fleiß, Franziska Guggi and Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson
14-2023 A regulatory green hydrogen framework for Namibia
by Oliver C. Ruppel and Magano Katoole
13-2023 Non-discrimination and the differential treatment of persons in need of protection
by Lisa Heschl
12-2023 Hegels Staat: ein Umriss (Hegel's State: An Overview)
by Christoph Bezemek
11-2023 Art 4:201 Petl: Revisiting the Grey Areas between Fault-Based and Strict Liability
by Barbara Steininger
10-2023 Law as weak Integrity
by Christian Hiebaum
09-2023 Meta’s Oversight Board: First Empirical Insights
by Laíse Milena Barbosa
08-2023 Algorithmic Pricing - A Competition Law Perspective on Personalised Prices
by Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson
07-2023 A Comparative Constitutional Analysis of Natural Resources Protection
by Oliver C. Ruppel and Ruda Murray
06-2023 Supplying Ukraine With Weapons Due to the Russian Aggression: Legal Justification
by Svitlana Andreichenko
05-2023 Rechtsphilosophische Elemente in Kants Kritik der Urteilskraft
by Paul Gragl
04-2023 Cuban Energy Law and Green Energy Transition
by Ernesto Moreira Sardiñas
02-2023 Über den affirmative turn in der Friedensforschung und Friedenspraxis im Anthropozän (On the Affirmative Turn in Peace Research and Peace Practice in the Anthropocene)
by Maximilian Lakitsch
01-2023 Notariatsakt und materielle Prüfpflicht des Firmenbuchgerichts auf dem Prüfstand
by Walter Doralt and Lea Zieger
2022
20-2022 Liability for human rights violations in supply chains under Austrian law
by Barbara C. Steininger
19-2022 Ready or Not? A Systematic Review of Case Studies Using Data-Driven Approaches to Detect Real-World Antitrust Violations
by Jan Amthauer, Jürgen Fleiß, Franziska Guggi and Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson
18-2022 Orientation towards subject and critique as conditions for the success of political education
by Lara Möller
17-2022 Soft law: Legal protection potential of nullity actions and preliminary ruling proceedings
by Sebastian Scholz
16-2022 eSports and Antitrust Law
by Soojin Nam, Viktoria H.S.E Robertson and Fabian Ziermann
15-2022 The Judicial Review of National Competition Law Decisions in Austria (2004-2021)
by Viktoria H.S.E Robertson
14-2022 Urban Law and Technology - Legal Implications of Smart Cities
by Lukas Jechtl
13-2022 Diesel cases and the so-called emissions scandal: Purchasers' claims against the manufacturer under Austrian law
by Walter Doralt
12-2022 Institutionalizing Google: When Self-Preferencing Becomes Anticompetitive
by Tea Mustać
11-2022 Sustainability and Interdisciplinarity as an Existential Necessity within a Planetary Perspective
by Maximilian Lakitsch
10-2022 Deduction of Benefits in European Tort Law
by David Messner
09-2022 Peacebuilding in an Entangled World
by Maximilian Lakitsch
08-2022 Fundamental Rights and the Economic Constitution
by Christoph Bezemek
06-2022 Computer forensics as a new challenge in white-collar crime investigations
by Anna Zaversky
05-2022 The Twin Transition to a Green and Digital Economy: The Role for EU Competition Law
by Klaudia Majcher and Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson
04-2022 The Mutual Assistance Clause under Article 42(7) TEU. Considerations in Light of the Ukraine's Quest for Membership
by Aistė Mickonytė
03-2022 Lawfulness in Theoretical Reason
by Paul Gragl
02-2022 Constitutional Theory between Public Law and Political Science: Outdated Relic or Pioneering Bridge?
by Stephan Hinghofer-Szalkay
01-2022 Federalism in 2030
by Bilyana Petkova
2021
25-2021 The Foundations of Civil Liability for Industrial Pollution
by David Messner
24-2021 Data, Privacy and Competition Law
by Anne C. Witt
23-2021 Great unclear expectations: a study on the defectiveness of autonomous systems
by Cemre Polat
22-2021 The Use of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism and its Potential
by Wolfgang Benedek
21-2021Longing for Recognition - The Execution Title as a Door Opener for Mediation?
by Sascha Ferz
20-2021 The Duty to Prevent Harm in Challenging Times
by Gregor Christandl
19-2021 The court application for judicial review pursuant to Art. 89 para. 2 B-VG
by Thomas Schoditsch
18-2021 Supremacy, the Uniformity of EU Law, and the Principle of Equality
by Marcus Klamert
17-2021 "Breaking the Law...!"? On the role of law and legal reference in the cultural history of the Styrian heavy metal scene since 1980
by Peter Pichler
16-2021On the antitrust assessment of market power in the digital age
by Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson
15-2021 Educational power and state authority: autonomy or intervention
by Jürgen Pirker
14-2021 Peace in the Anthropocene
by Maximilian Lakitsch
13-2021Data, democracy and antitrust law - On the development of an evidence-based approach to democratic deficits in digital markets from the perspective of antitrust law
by Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson
12-2021 Towards Optimal Liability for Artificial Intelligence: Lessons from the European Union's Proposals of 2020
by Stefan Heiß
11-2021 The Aspirations and Reality of Law - 21 Theses on the Study of Law in the 21st Century
by Christoph Bezemek
10-2021 Austrian Limited: The plans for the flexible corporation and the reform of company law
by Walter Doralt, Keyvan Rastegar, Martin Gelter, Pierre-Henri Conanc, Katharina Rastegar and Edmund Schuster
09-2021 Academic Career Paths for Lawyers in Germany and Austria
by Walter Doralt
08-2021 'The Law Works Itself Pure' - Reflections on a Cherished Trope
by Christoph Bezemek
07-2021 The Climate and Ecological Emergency in the Era of a State of Exceptions
by Attila Antal
06-2021 Taxing Profit and Consumption in Market Jurisdictions: Equity and Administrability in the Digital Era
by Stefan Hammerl and Lily Zechner
05-2021 Directors' and Officers' Liability and D&O Insurance - Recent Developments and Current Design Issues
by Walter Doralt
04-2021 Compulsory Vaccination and the ECtHR: What to Expect
by Anja Krasser
03-2021 Penalty Clauses in Commercial Contracts
by Walter Doralt
02-2021 Understanding Conflicts with Religious Dimensions in their Transnational Interrelations
by Maximilian Lakitsch
01-2021 The Relevant Market Concept in Competition Law and Its Application to Digital Markets: A Comparative Analysis of the EU, US, and Brazil
by Magali Eben and Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson
2020
09-2020 The Right to (Acquire?) Property: Social Security Rights before the ECtHR
by Aistė Mickonytė
08-2020 A Deconstruction of the Jurisdiction of the CJEU in CFSP Matters - Enlightenment at the End of the Tunnel?
by Lorin-Johannes Wagner
07-2020 Global Justice and Collective Autonomy - Democracy as a Problem of Cosmopolitanism
by Christian Hiebaum
06-2020 The Issues of Loss and Damage Within the International Climate Law
by Yvonne Karimi-Schmidt
05-2020 Così fan tutte: Some Comments on Austria's Draft Communications Platforms Act
by Gregor Fischer, Matthias C. Kettemann and Felicitas Rachinger
04-2020 Elimination of the business basis
by Walter Doralt
03-2020 From the Platzwagenlenkerin to the fair allocation of smoking goods
by Anita Ziegerhofer
02-2020 The Role of Antitrust Authorities Regarding the Digital Economy
by Gerhard Fussenegger and Viktoria H.S.E. Robertson
01-2020 The Concept of Public Interest
by Christoph Bezemek and Tomas Dumbrovsky
Editors
Paul Gragl, Jürgen Pirker, Barbara C. Steininger
Associate Editors
Vanessa Nistelberger, Michael Sapetschnig, Nikoleta Simic
Guidelines for submission
TheGraz Law Working Paper Series is dedicated to law in all its diversity, including public law, private law, comparative law research and interdisciplinary approaches. All faculty members of the Graz Law Faculty (REWI Uni Graz), doctoral students and visiting scholars are invited to submit working papers to the series.
Research reports from one of the faculty's numerous projects can be submitted as well as contributions presented at scientific conferences at the REWI Uni Graz. Working papers can be written in English or German and must follow a standardized citation style.
The series contains working papers, i.e. preprints that have not yet been published in a journal or anthology. The working papers are published electronically and are accessible online free of charge.
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To submit a working paper, please contact law.wps(at)uni-graz.at.
