Social justice is of paramount importance for a sustainable future of our society, not only when health treatment is concerned, but moreover also to provide possibilities for a humane death. The new Austrian legal framework of suicide assistance, valid since the 1 January 2022 pose new legal problems, which will be analysed within the dissertation. Especially the tension within the multipolare legal structure of the suicide assistance will be from interest, because a conflict between the right to life on the one side and the right to self-determination on the other can be identified. Following the doctoral thesis wants to analyse if the Austrian Sterbeverfügungsgesetz is compatible with the judicial understanding of the concerned fundamental rights. The dissertation aims to deliver results by answering research questions using the legal dogmatic method, which will bring knowledge gains not only for the legal field.

Agricultural land as undeveloped cultivated land represents an environmental resource with important ecological functions. Furthermore, it plays a crucial role in responding to climate change and in the prevention of natural hazards. Moreover, maintaining the capacity of agricultural land in ensuring the population’s food supply is crucial, not only in times of crisis due to the pandemic and more recently also in relation to the effects of the war in Ukraine. Therefore, preserving this environmental resource and source of food supply from being used for construction purposes remains more topical than ever.

In this context, the area of spatial planning law, which considers all territorial interests to ensure an orderly and sustainable development through a planning system, may assume an important role. Regarding the role of spatial planning directed to preserve the cultivable agricultural land, the crucial question is which planning level – local, supra-local, or national – and which planning instruments are appropriate. This question is examined by the case study of three border regions: Graubünden in Switzerland, Tyrol in Austria, and the South Tyrol in Italy. These regions have been selected firstly because of their similar geomorphological characteristics and secondly on behalf of the cross-border collaboration which takes place in parts of their territory through the Interreg Council Terra Raetica.

Regarding the legal situation of Tyrol (AT) and South Tyrol (IT), the municipalities seem to play a significant role in implementing the legally established principle of preserving cultivable agricultural land, due to the municipality’s planning sovereignty, which is anchored at constitutional level. Instead, in the Swiss canton of Graubünden the discretionary power of the municipality seems to be less pronounced. Therefore, the scope of action of the municipality in the spatial planning system has to be analysed, especially by discussing, the different spatial planning instruments with regard not only to the communal level, but as well to the supra-municipal level. In particular, instruments such as the sectoral plan for crop rotation areas elaborated on the national level in Switzerland or the spatial planning programs in Tyrol (AT) have to be taken into account as they represent specific instruments in the context of the use of agricultural land. Specifically, the paper focuses on the extent in which the use of cultivable agricultural land is detailed by the planning instruments, therefore binding the discretionary scope of the municipalities in varying degrees of intensity. The whole analysis has to be carried out under consideration of the constitutional framework.

In defining the appropriate level of administration for the regulation of cultivated agricultural land, the paper chooses the methodology of comparative law which analyses different legal solutions to the same question. This method seems particularly appropriate as in the specific case studied the countries involved have taken inspiration from each other in designing their spatial planning system, especially from the Swiss planning model. However, to permit a fruitful comparision, it is necessary to define the subject of the comparision, i.e. the agricultural area worthy of protection. Furthermore, the existing planning systems regarding the cultivated agricultural land need to be examined in order to discuss to what extent the approaches of one legal system can be transferred to the other. Finally, in highlighting the differences and similarities there may emerge possibilities for further cross-border collaboration at the political and administrative level.