Isabelle Häner
Prof. Dr. iur.
Attorney at law
Partner
Head in Constitutional and Administrative Law
Office:
Phone:
+41 58 258 10 00
Languages:
German
English
French
VCard:
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Vita
As an attorney-at-law, Isabelle Häner advises and litigates on behalf of public and private sector entities as well as private individuals in administrative law matters. She has a broad range of expertise, in particular in the areas of public procedural law, the principle of publicity, mixed-economy task fulfilment, including public procurement law, state and municipal law, construction, planning and environmental law, infrastructure law and energy law. She accompanies and represents clients in administrative proceedings as well as before the cantonal administrative courts and the Federal Administrative Court and the Federal Supreme Court. With her scientific background, she also drafts well-founded legal opinions.
Admitted to the Swiss Bar since 1991.
Professional background
- Associate professor for constitutional and administrative law at the University of Zurich (since 2006)
- Partner at Bratschi Ltd. (since 2000)
- Attorney-at-law in a law firm in Zurich (1997-2000)
- Substitute judge at the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich (1995-2003)
- Substitute judge on the Tax Appeals Commission II of the Canton of Zurich (1995-2002)
- Senior assistant at the Institute of Law (1992-1997)
- Lecturer at the University of Zurich (since 1991)
- Internships at the Zurich District Court and the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich
- Scientific assistant for constitutional and administrative law at the Institute of Law at the University of Zurich with Prof. Dr. iur. Alfred Kölz
Training
- Post-doctoral degree (habilitation), University of Zurich, (2000)
- Dr. iur., University of Zurich, (1989)
- lic. iur., University of Zurich, (1983)
Reference cases
- Federal Court considers UBI competent to decide on the deletion of a comment in an SRG online forum (Judgement 2C_1023/2021 of 29 November 2022).
- Federal Administrative Court orders the Federal Office for Gender Equality to is-sue an order on a real act and to exam-ine the applications to amend its guide-lines on checks on compliance with equal pay between women and men in the federal public procurement system, judgment A-2768/2021 of 8 November 2022
- Legal opinion for the Audit Committee of the City of Zug on the GPK's right to inspect documents dated 15 August 2022.
- Federal Court considers the right to a fair hearing to have been violated due to the lack of a visual inspection and remits the matter to the lower court (judgement 1C_718/2020 of 21 June 2022).
- Legal opinion for the Surselva Farmers' Association on the legal possibilities for protecting property and other rights against attacks by wolves, dated 25 June 2021.
- Legal opinion for Swisscom AG, Sunrise UPC GmbH and Salt Mobile SA on adap-tive antennas dated 24 June 2021
- Legal opinion for Gastrosuisse on the legality of the criteria and benchmarks set by the Federal Council for re-strictions in connection with the Covid 19 pandemic of 12 April 2021
- Federal Administrative Court intervenes twice because the Federal Office for Ag-riculture publishes incorrect infor-mation on its website (judgements B-3340/2020 of 24 August 2020 and 15 February 2021).
- Legal opinion on the admissibility and introduction of "marriage for all" dated 4 November 2020
- Legal opinion for Prof. Jörg Conrad and Jürg Davatz on the southern bypass in Santa Maria dated 3 November 2020
- Federal Court considers profit surcharge on energy tariff to be permissible in principle and remits proceedings to El-Com) (ruling 2C_297/2019 of 28 May 2020)
- Federal Court protects City of Zurich that in the specific case it could not be forced to establish a foundation under public law (ruling 2C_1085/2019 of 8 May 2020)
- Legal opinion for Landolt & Mächler Consultans AG on the validation of the legality of the L&M-Aba-R® equal pay analysis of 17 April 2020.
- Legal opinion for the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern on the constitution-ality of the FLG Revision 2020 and the planned Fund for the Financing of Stra-tegic Investment Projects (FFsIG) of 12 July 2019.
- Federal Court upholds private-law quali-fication of so-called focal points, which is to be distinguished from specialist ti-tles (ruling 2C_39/2018 of 18 June 2019
- Federal Court considers activities of the Swiss National Bank in the referendum campaign on the full money initiative to be permissible (BGE 145 I 175, judg-ment of 10 December 2018).
- Federal Administrative Court rules on the tendering of financial assistance for the operating costs of museums and third-party collections - very wide scope for awarding bodies, ruling B-5798/2017 of 24 October 2018.
- Federal Court rejected the obligation to issue an order on a real act on the love-life campaign of the Federal Office of Public Health (ruling of 15 June 2018, BGE 144 II 233)
- Federal Supreme Court ruling on priori-ty in the allocation of capacities in the cross-border transmission network (rul-ing 2C_632/2016 of 6 November 2017).
- Federal Court allows minimum wage in cantonal law despite collective labour agreement (Federal Court decision of 21 July 2017 BGE 143 I 403)
- Federal Court considers activities of health insurance funds in the referen-dum campaign on the popular initiative on the single health insurance fund (public health insurance) to be permis-sible; these were affected by the refer-endum in a qualified manner Federal Court decision of 4 September 2014, BGE 140 I 338
- Legal Opinion for the Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU) on the swift treatment of objections and appeals of environmental organizations for projects in the area of renewable energy of De-cember 10, 2012
- Legal opinions for the social welfare office of the Canton of Zurich on the fi-nancing of the placement of kids in a children's home, a youth home or a home for school children of August 25, 2012
- Moor protection was wrongly disregard-ed in the 20-year planning of the Ober-land highway in the Canton of Zurich (Federal Supreme Court decision of July 12 2012, BGE 138 II 281)
- Legal Opinion for the State Chancellery of the Canton of Zug on questions of recusals by members of the Canton's Council (executive branch) of July 4 2012,
- For municipalities situated in the east of Zurich-Kloten airport improvements could be achieved with the temporary regulations in the course of the proce-dure (Federal Supreme Court decision of December 22 2010, BGE 137 II 58)
- The prosecution is not allowed to enter into contractual arrangements with an euthanasia organization about euthana-sia; such arrangements would qualify as a violation of the supreme federal law (Federal Supreme Court decision of June 16 2010, BGE 136 II 415)
- Casinos prevailed in Federal Supreme Court, poker tournaments qualify as gambling (Federal Supreme Court deci-sion of May 20 2010, BGE 136 II 291)
- A result of a university may be chal-lenged by subsidiary constitutional complaint if such result bears legal con-sequences or affects the overall grade (Federal Supreme Court decision of May 14 2010, BGE 136 I 229)
- Federal Court did not see any violation of equal pay in the specific case (Federal Court decision of 4 January 2010 (judgement 8C_32/2009 and 8C_33/2009)
- Clarification of legal protection granted to external administrative support staff (Federal Supreme Court decision of De-cember 2, 2008, BGE 135 II 38)
- Legal clarification of the position of a medical officer of a health insurance with respect to data protection laws (Federal Supreme Court decision of May 9 2004, BGE 131 II 413)
Other activities
- Member of the Board of Trustees of the Ghandi Foundation (2017 - present)
- Member of the Board of Directors of Werke am Zürichsee (2011 - present)
- Member of the Board of Directors of Energie und Wasser Erlenbach (2010 - present)
- President of the Swiss Lawyers' Association (2003-2006)
- President of the Constitutional Council of the Canton of Zurich (2002-2003)
- Member of the Constitutional Council of the Canton of Zurich (2000-2005)
Awards
- recommended for «Public Law» by Legal500 (2024)
- recommended for «Public Law» by Legal500 (2023)
- recommended for «Real Estate Law» and «Regulatory Practice» by BestLawyers (2022)
- recommended for «Public Law» by Legal500 (2022)
- recommended for «Public Law» by Legal500 (2021)
- recommended for «Real Estate Law» and «Regulatory Practice» by BestLawyers (2021)
- recommended for «Real Estate Law» and «Regulatory Practice» by BestLawyers (2018)
- recommended for «Public Law» by Legal500 (2018)
Media presence
- Digitalisierung der Justiz mit österreichischer Hilfe, Interview mit Isabelle Häner, in: SRF Echo der Zeit, 26.02.2024
Memberships
- Swiss Bar Association
- Zurich Bar Association
- Swiss Lawyers' Association
- Zurich Lawyers' Association
- Association of Environmental Law
More from Isabelle Häner
Know-how
bratschiBLOG
öff-recht blog: Vernehmlassung zum Gesetz über digitale Basisdienste im Kanton Zürich
Heute eröffnete die Staatskanzlei des Kantons Zürich die Vernehmlassung zum Gesetz über digitale Basisdienste, die bis zum 13.…
Learn more
bratschiLETTER
Zur Mitwirkung verpflichtet
Dem Datenschutz- und Öffentlichkeitsbeauftragten (EDÖB) kommt neu die Befugnis zu, zur Durchsetzung des Datenschutzgesetzes (DSG)…
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News
27.11.2020
Constitutional basis for the «marriage for all»?
Learn moreExpertise
Commercial Administrative Law
Constitutional and Municipal Law
Construction Law
Data Protection Law
Democratic Rights
Education Law
Energy Law
Environmental Law
General Administrative Law
Infrastructure Law
Privatization and Outsourcing of Public Services, Public-Private Partnership
Public Labor Law
Public Tenders
Telecommunications Law