Elisabeth Steiner


Elisabeth Steiner has been a Judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg from November 1, 2001 until 2015.

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 in Vienna for a master's degree, which she graduated in November 1983, and in January 1985 she received a Doctorate from the same school.
Since 2015 she has been an Attorney at Law at Lansky, Ganzger + partner in Vienna.

Call to Bar and working life

Steiner was admitted to Austrian Bar in December 1987 and established legal practice in Vienna in January 1988. She 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 the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, which involved extensive fact-finding missions to those countries. Between 1999 and January 2001 she represented Holocaust victims from various countries. 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 and the Ukraine.