The series 'Decisions of the Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution' documents a fundamental element of Austria's most recent compensation measures dealing with the consequences of the National Socialist era. The possibility of in rem restitution of property seized during the National Socialist era which is now publicly-owned was provided for by the Washington Agreement of 2001. The Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution, established with the General Settlement Fund for Victims of National Socialism in Vienna, decides on applications for restitution. For the most part, the applications concern real estate that was confiscated between 1938 and 1945, was publicly-owned on the Agreement cut off day (17 January 2001) and in many cases had already been the subject of restitution proceedings after 1945.
Since 2003, the Arbitration Panel has decided on a great number of applications and has recommended the restitution of property to the former owners or their legal successors in several cases. In the course of these decisions based on the General Settlement Fund Law, the Arbitration Panel has developed a complex case law.
Volume 5 contains fifteen decisions of the Arbitration Panel from 2007 and 2008, each in the German original and with an English translation.

Joseph Aicher is a Professor at the Institute for Corporate and Economic Law at the University of Vienna.
Erich Kussbach is Honorary Professor of Humanitarian International Law at the University of Linz.
August Reinisch is head of the section for International Law and International Relations at the Department for European, International and Comparative Law at the University of Vienna.