The Impact of Recent European Developments on Operation of the Rule of Law Principle in the Czech Republic (original) (raw)
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Central European Public Administration Review, 2019
The rule of law is a fundamental principle and the cornerstone of Western democracies and their public governance. Its underlying value is the idea of constraint of governmental power. The rule of law principle acts as an interpretative concept in most contexts of the exercise of public powers in the EU and its Member States, with the courts exercising supervision over the activities of administrative bodies. However, the teleological argumentation through fundamental principles is not inherent to all Central and Eastern European judicial and administrative bodies, given the long tradition of formalistic approach in most of them. The article analyses whether the approach has changed during the past thirty years and to which level the principle of the rule of law is used for interpretation of administrative law provisions by courts in the Czech Republic. Since the case law of the Czech Constitutional Court and the Czech Supreme Administrative Court is based on the arguments of legali...
National Constitutions in European and Global Governance: Democracy, Rights, the Rule of Law, 2019
The Czech Constitution of 1992, associated with the revolutionary fervour of the 1989 Velvet Revolution, attempted to annihilate the Communist, totalitarian heritage. According to the judgments of the Constitutional Court (CCC), this meant that the rule of law in a constitutional state has not only a formal but also a substantive side, expressing the fundamental, inviolable values of a democratic society. There was a break from an approach that had seen the judiciary as a submissive and unthinking instrument of enforcement. In relation to EU law, several measures have been subject to constitutional challenges, including domestic acts implementing the European Arrest Warrant, the Data Retention Directive, and EU sugar quotas. The Czech Constitutional Court, which has a strong position, has underlined its EU-friendly approach. At the same time, for exceptional, flagrant cases, the CCC has retained the constitutional limits based on the democratic, rule-of-law-based state (unamendable provision under Art. 9(2) of the Constitution) and the protection of fundamental rights. Notably, in Landtová, the CCC declared an ECJ judgment ultra vires. In general, the reasoning of the CCC often follows that of the German Constitutional Court. In the practice of the ordinary courts, it emerges from the report that the Czech courts have adopted a rights-protective approach and carry out judicial review, including in European Arrest Warrant cases and other mutual recognition cases. The EU amendments in the Constitution are considered brief but sufficient.
ICL Journal, 2015
Before the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004, its constitution has been amended with objective to guarantee constitutional conformity of the EU accession. The Czech legal system has been opened to external legal provisions and a constitutional mechanism has been established for transfer of competencies to an external entity, all framed by the explicitly formulated constitutional principle of loyalty to the international obligations of the Czech Republic. However, the ‘European amendment’ of the Czech Constitution has left several important issues unanswered, such as the principle of supremacy of the EU law or relations between the Czech Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice of the EU. This article analyses how the Czech Constitutional Court tackled with EU-related constitutional issues that emerged during the first decade of Czech membership in the EU. Focused on four key cases decided by the Czech Constitutional Court (sugar quotas, European Arrest Warrant, ...
International and Comparative Law Review, 2019
he paper analyses the use of the preliminary ruling procedure by the Czech Constitutional Court and the attitude of this court towards the EU law. The approach of the Constitutional Court to the judicial dialog is also compared with some other European constitutional courts mainly with those who have a similar role in national judiciary or with those who were able to effectively take an advantage of the preliminary ruling procedure. The paper demonstrates that the Czech Constitutional Court took the position that seems to be unsustainable from a long time perspective as the reality of the current development favours the spirit of cooperation among European highest courts.
National Sovereignty in the European Union View from the Czech Perspective, 2016
Supranational law reaches its goals either through the effect of its own norms or through national law based on European rules. Thus, also the question of the relationship between European and national law (as a whole) must reflect these two options. To summarize the application of EU law to the legal system of a Member State can be of two different types (a) Direct, normative influence on the national legal system, i.e. its enrichment with new 'European' norms, (b) Indirect, value-based influence, when the goals of European integration, the ideological basis of the EU and its law, the intentions and purposes of the EU's legislator, etc. must be considered by national authorities when interpreting national law, i.e. it is enriched with new 'European' meanings.
The paper deals with the non-normative impacts of the EU law in the national legal systems (Czech Republic in particular) and focuses on the approach of the Czech Constitutional Court (CCC) towards the so-called principle of indirect effect of EU law. The authors examine the case law of CCC and offer the conclusions about the place, constitutional relevance and (national) limits of the EU-consistent interpretation of national law. CCC up to date case law clearly indicates that a EU-consistent interpretation is the most ideal tool for meeting the Czech Republic's membership obligations. But it is simultaneously a tool for preserving the autonomy of the national authorities applying law and reduces possible tensions between supranational and nation law. CCC accepts the indirect effect broadly and used this concept even in controversial cases (European arrest warrant, State responsibility for damages etc.). But still it does not approach this effect without reservations. CCC points on the necessity to protect the fundamental constitutional values ('Solange' concept) even in connection with the duty of EU-consistent interpretation.
Central European Judges Under the European Influence : The Transformative Power of the EU Revisited
on Law in Economy and Society (ed Max Rheinstein , trans E Shils) (Harvard University Press , 1969). 9 This distinction is a refl ection on our observation that authors do not always recognize that formalist judicial style does not necessarily equal to the rule based decision making. Judges many times only pretend that they decide on the basis of the text of the law. In these cases they only justify their decision by the text of the law. For a classical example of ignoring this distinction see HLA Hart , The Concept of Law (Oxford University Press , 1994) 124-54. 10 Schauer (n 3) 511.