Elisabeth Steiner

Elisabeth Steiner is a Judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg as of November 1, 2001.

Education

Born March 21, 1956 in Vienna, Austria she graduated from the Academy for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna in June 1978 and went on to study law at the Faculty of Law, University of Vienna, where she obtained her Doctor of Law degree in 1981. She continued studying at the Economics University (Academy for International Trade) in Vienna for a Master’s degree (business administration), which she graduated in November 1983, and in January 1985 she received a Doctorate (business administration), from the same school.

Call to Bar and working life

Steiner was admitted to Austrian Bar in December 1987 and established legal practice in Vienna in January 1988 and practiced solo until her appointment as a Judge. Between March 1999 and October 2001 she acted for some 80,000 former slave and forced laborers from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, involving extensive fact-finding missions to those countries. Between 1999 and January 2001 she represented Holocaust victims from various countries (USA, Austria, etc.). Judge Steiner places an emphasis on women's rights and maintains contacts with women's rights organizations in China, Nigeria, Bhutan, Nepal, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Algeria, Belarus, Ukraine.

References

• Peter Wrabetz, Österreichs Rechtsanwälte in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Verlag Österreich, 2002.