Austria - Constitution - Part D Federal Legislative Procedure

Article 41 [Bills]
(1) Legislative proposals are submitted to the House of Representatives either as motions by its members or as Federal Government bills. The Senate can propose legislative motions to the House of Representatives by way of the Federal Government.
(2) Every motion proposed by 100,000 voters or by one sixth each of the voters in three States shall be submitted by the main electoral board to the House of Representatives for action. The initiative must be put forward in the form of a draft law.

Article 42 [Objection]
(1) Every enactment of the House of Representatives shall without delay be conveyed by the President to the Senate.
(2) Save as otherwise provided by constitutional law, an enactment can be authenticated and published only if the Senate has not raised a reasoned objection to this enactment.
(3) This objection must be conveyed to the House of Representatives in writing by the Chairman of the Senate within eight weeks of the enactment's arrival; the Federal Chancellor shall be informed thereof.
(4) If the House of Representatives in the presence of at least half its members once more carries its original resolution, this shall be authenticated and published. If the Senate resolves not to raise any objection or if no reasoned objection is raised within the deadline laid down in Paragraph (3), the enactment shall be authenticated and published.
(5) The Senate can raise no objection to resolutions of the House of Representatives relating to a law on the House of Representatives' Standing Orders, the dissolution of the House of Representatives, the appropriation of the Federal Budget estimates, the sanction of the final Federal Budget, the raising or conversion of federal loans, or the disposal of federal property. These enactments of the House of Representatives shall be authenticated and published without further formalities.

Article 43 [Referendum]
If the House of Representatives so decides or if the majority of members of the House of Representatives so demands, every enactment of the House of Representatives shall be submitted to a referendum upon conclusion of the procedure pursuant to Article 42 but before its authentication by the Federal President.

Article 44 [Constitutional Laws]
(1) Constitutional laws or constitutional provisions contained in simple laws can be passed by the House of Representatives only in the presence of at least half the members and by a two thirds majority of the votes cast, they shall be explicitly specified as such.
(2) Any total revision of the Federal Constitution shall upon conclusion of the procedure pursuant to Article 42 but before its authentication by the Federal President be submitted to a referendum by the entire nation, whereas any partial revision requires this only if one third of the members of the House of Representatives or the Senate so demands.

Article 45 [Referendum Majority]
(1) For a referendum, the absolute majority of the validly cast votes is decisive.
(2) The result of a referendum shall be officially announced.

Article 46 [Initiative and Referendum Law]
(1) The procedure for an initiative and a referendum will be prescribed by federal law.
(2) Everyone who is eligible for the House of Representatives has the right to vote.
(3) A referendum takes place at the order of the Federal President.

Article 47 [Signatures]
(1) The constitutional enactment of federal laws is authenticated by the signature of the Federal President.
(2) The submission for authentication is effected by the Federal Chancellor.
(3) The authentication shall be countersigned by the Federal Chancellor.

Article 48 [Publication]
Federal laws and the treaties specified in Article 50 will be published with reference to their adoption by the House of Representatives; federal laws based upon a referendum with reference to the result of that referendum.

Article 49 [Promulgation]
(1) Federal laws and the treaties specified in Article 50 shall be published by the Federal Chancellor in the Federal Law Gazette. Unless explicitly provided otherwise, their entry into force begins with expiry of the day on which the number of the Federal Law Gazette containing their publication is issued and distributed and it extends, unless explicitly provided otherwise, to the entire federal territory; this does not apply to treaties which are to be implemented by the issue of laws (Article 50 (2)).
(2) The House of Representatives can on the occasion of giving its sanction to treaties pursuant to Article 50 resolve that a treaty or individual explicitly specified parts of it shall be published not in the federal law Gazette, but in another appropriate manner. Such a resolution by the House of Representatives has to state the manner of publication, which must guarantee the accessibility of the treaty for the duration of its validity, and shall be notified by the Federal Chancellor in the Federal Law Gazette. Unless explicitly provided otherwise, the entry into force of such treaties begins with expiry of the day on which the number of the Federal Law Gazette containing the notification of the resolution by the House of Representatives is issued and distributed and it extends, unless explicitly provided otherwise, to the entire federal territory.
(3) A special federal law on the Federal Law Gazette will he promulgated.

Article 49a [Republication]
(1) The Federal Chancellor is empowered jointly with the competent Federal Ministers to restate with binding effect federal laws in their valid version by publication in the Federal Law Gazette.
(2) On the occasion of the republication:
1. obsolete terminological expressions can be rectified and outdated spelling assimilated to the new manner of writing;
2. references to other regulations which no longer fit in with current legislation as well as other inconsistencies can be rectified;
3. provisions which have been nullified by later regulations or otherwise rendered void can be declared invalid;
4. title abridgements and alphabetical abbreviations of titles can be laid down;
5. the designations of articles, sections, paragraphs, and the like can in case of elimination or insertion be correspondingly altered and in this connection references thereto within the text of the regulation be appropriately rectified; and
6. interim provisions as well as earlier still applicable versions of the federal law in question can by specification of their purview be recapitulated and simultaneously with the republication be separately issued.
(3) From the day following issue of the republication all courts and administrative authorities are bound by the restated text of the federal law in respect of facts materializing thereafter.