WU congratulates Professor Madner on her upcoming appointment as vice president of the Austrian Constitutional Court by the federal president.

Verena Madner is one of Austria’s leading experts on environmental law. As head of the Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance she acts as a consultant to the City of Vienna on urban development questions, with a focus on climate protection and “smart city” applications. In 2019, the mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig (SPÖ), appointed her to the city’s recently established climate council.

Verena Madner worked at WU even before completing her doctoral degree at the University of Vienna in 1994. She started as an assistant at the Institute for Constitutional and Administrative Law in 1990, and later she worked at the Institute for Austrian and European Public Law as an assistant professor. Madner has been a professor of public law, environmental law, and public and urban governance at the Department of Socioeconomics since 2015. In 2018, she was named head of the Institute for Law and Governance.

Verena Madner is the 5th member of WU’s faculty to join the ranks of the Constitutional Court. In addition to President Christoph Grabenwarter, WU Professors Wolfgang Brandstetter, Michael Holoubek, and Georg Lienbacher also serve as judges on the Constitutional Court. This makes 5 of the Court’s 14 judges WU faculty.