Our practice professorships
REWI Graz has established "Practice Professorships" in order to anchor legal practice even more firmly in the degree program and to bring research and application closer together. These are designed as part-time professorships, as the practice professors continue to work in their traditional profession. The following renowned personalities currently enrich research and teaching at the faculty with their insights into legal practice and offer students the unique opportunity to benefit from their wealth of practical experience intheir courses:
Christian Aschauer
Christian Aschauer is an expert in international arbitration proceedings, in particular in the energy, telecommunications, construction and plant contracts, M&A, joint ventures, international sales contracts, arbitration enforcement proceedings and arbitration setting aside proceedings, and international succession law. He acts as chairman, sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator or party representative in arbitration proceedings, inter alia under the Arbitration Rules of the ICC, the VIAC, the Camera Arbitrale di Milano, the Arbitral Tribunal of the Vienna Bar Association and the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. Accordingly, students cannot be introduced to the world of arbitration much better than by Christian Aschauer. He does this in his lecture on "Austrian Arbitration Law in the Context of International Institutional Arbitration" as well as in his practical courses on the Willem C. Vis Moot Court.
Georg Eisenberger
Georg Eisenberger is a partner in the law firm Eisenberger Rechtsanwälte, which specializes in public law. He is one of Austria's leading specialists for highly complex constitutional and administrative issues. He has conducted countless proceedings before the Constitutional Court, the Administrative Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. He specializes in advising on renewable energies and other major urban development, regional planning, commercial, water and EIA law projects. Under his leadership, Eisenberger Rechtsanwälte has handled numerous politically controversial cases, most recently, for example, constitutional complaints during the Corona crisis or representations before various committees of inquiry. Georg Eisenberger currently provides our students with specialist knowledge on state aid law and also supervises the Environmental Law Moot Court.
Markus Fallenböck
Markus Fallenböck has been working on the legal and economic implementation of digital transformation for over twenty years. He is currently Vice Rector for Human Resources and Digitalization, Head of IdeaLab and University Professor for Technology and Innovation Law at the University of Graz. He was managing partner at Fintech Sunrise (formerly Own360), of which he is still co-owner, worked at McKinsey and was on the board of e-business consultancy evolaris. Markus Fallenböck currently teaches introductory courses on IT law, artificial intelligence and digitalization, as well as standardization and technical security law.
Meinrad Handstanger
Meinrad Handstanger was appointed Court Councillor of the Administrative Court after working for many years in the Constitutional Service of the Federal Chancellery. Here he was always confronted with a variety of different matters, including the EIA Act, hunting and fishing law and aviation matters. Mainard Handstanger will continue to judge these matters in his new role as President of the Senate of the Administrative Court as Chairman of Senate 3, and he has also taken over the "Public Procurement Senate" (Senate 4). At our faculty, he teaches on common issues of private and public law as well as on the implementation of EU law from the perspective of the Administrative Court. He is also one of the supervisors of the Administrative Law Moot Court.
Elisabeth Hödl
Elisabeth Hödl is a professor of IT law at the Institute for Legal Studies. She worked in the European Parliament and spent many years in a law firm specializing in commercial law. She was then Chief Scientific Officer of a consulting company and later founded a consulting company for future concepts in the digital world. Today she works for the Styria Media Group AG. In her teaching, she combines this diverse experience with legal knowledge of IT law, currently in a course on normative principles of digitalization. Together with Sascha Ferz, she also offers a seminar on serious games.
Marcus Klamert
Marcus Klamert works as a practice professor at the Institute for European Law and in the Constitutional Service of the Federal Chancellery. Among other things, he has represented the Republic of Austria in several proceedings before the European Court of Justice. Before joining the civil service, he worked as a legal officer for the European Commission and for a law firm. At our faculty, he offers courses on practical issues of European law, such as Brexit, tobacco regulation or the "foreigner toll".
Thomas Mühlbacher
Thomas Mühlbacher is practice personified. He incorporates his many years of experience in the criminal justice system, including more than a decade as head of a public prosecutor's office, into his teaching and research. He is therefore particularly interested in conveying an understanding of criminal law and criminal procedural law that is as practical as possible. He is the author of a commentary on the Public Prosecution Act and co-editor and author of a multi-volume commentary on the Code of Criminal Procedure. He has been researching Hans Gross' life's work with great interest for many years and contributes his special expertise to the Hans Gross Center for Interdisciplinary Criminal Sciences (ZiK). He teaches at the REWI on a wide range of criminal law issues, such as the practice of preliminary proceedings or diversion, but also in the main lectures on criminal law.
Helmut Tichy
Whatever Austria does on the international stage - Prof. Helmut Tichy knows it. Prof. Tichy has been in the service of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs since 1983, and has always worked in the international law office of this department in Austria. His assignments abroad include Belgrade (1984), Geneva (1985 - 1988) and Brussels (1993 - 2000). He was also Deputy Head of the Vienna Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 1988 to 1990, Head of Department I.2 "General International Law" in the International Law Office from 2000 to 2009, Deputy Head from 2007 to 2009 and Head of the International Law Office at the FMEIA since 2010. In addition to his work at the REWI Graz, he is a lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna. Tichy publishes regularly on international law issues, in particular - annually since 2011, together with colleagues from the International Law Office - on "Recent Austrian practice in the field of international law" in the Zeitschrift für Öffentliches Recht (ZÖR). In teaching, he introduces students to current and historically important Austrian references to international law and is available to answer practice-related questions from participants in international moot courts.
