Austrian constitutional law theory is slowly but steadily warming up to the concept of “Völkerrechtsfreundlichkeit” “friendliness towards international law”). Due to its largely technical and unemotional formulations, the Austrian Federal Constitution blocks elaborated theories based on the constitutional text. Nevertheless, some elements of “Völkerrechtsfreundlichkeit” can be filtered out, each of which are significant in their own right but they do not reveal any signs of a coherent and verifiable concept. This article introduces a number of relevant legal rules, including the generally recognised rules of international law, the handling of violations of international law, and the constitutional establishment of treaties – especially in their human rights dimension. The analysis concludes that the Austrian Federal Constitution does not harbour an empathetic, but rather an unpretentious variant of the concept of “Völkerrechtsfreundlichkeit”.
