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1 Abstract (in English langugage) In the presented dissertation thesis I tried to argue that if we want to apply the principle of proportionality correctly in case of a collision of fundamental rights or in case of a collision between a fundamental right and a countervailing interest, it is not sufficient only to refer to this principle within the argumentation. On the contrary, it is necessary to recognize a structure of this principle and to apply its components. In order to recognize the structure and components of the proportionality principle, it is necessary to understand the role and effects of human rights in legal orders. I assume that theoretical backgrounds of this principle contribute to the better understanding of the objective tension between the individual's autonomy and general will of the society. Another important aspect in the correct application of this principle is the institutional balance between the legislature and the judiciary and overcoming of the "counter-majoritarian problem". In the contemporary, not only Czech, but also foreign practice we may observe lots of examples in which courts do not pay appropriate attention to the proportionality principle. When solving hard cases, sometimes they made only a reference to this principle without further elaboration. From the...

121 Summary Shrnutí v anglickém jazyce The presented work challenges traditional view on human rights as rights guaranteed only against the state. In contemporary world, in which states delegate powers either on supranational structures or on private entities, it is hardly acceptable for the individual to remain unprotected against comparable interferences with his constitutional rights caused by private persons. The classical doctrines of human rights protection lead in this situation to the decrease of level of protection of individuals. Therefore certain models of application of human rights norms in private law are to be scrutinized. How public and private law intertwine in contemporary law was shown on the examples of private military contractors that accompany modern armies in wars as well as transnational corporations operating in the Third World and exploiting indigenous peoples there. Notwithstanding the aforementioned it is clear that it was primarily private law that determined various areas of the "constitutional" status of individuals before modern constitutions of states came into force. From various models of application of human rights norms in private law, the example of models of direct and indirect horizontal application as well as non-application of human rights norms was described and...

Ve své práci se pokusím nastínit některé aspekty problematiky zjišťování skutkového stavu, konkrétně problematiku různého pojetí formální a materiální pravdy. Téma je to podle mého názoru aktuální, neboť v současném rychle se měnícím právním řádu České republiky se snaha po urychleném návratu mezi vyspělé právní kultury mnohdy nesetkala se stejným úsilím po teoretickém zdůvodnění té či oné právní úpravy. V zásadě stejný závěr lze učinit podle mého názoru o procesu sbližování českého práva s právem Evropské Unie. Otázkami pojetí formální a materiální pravdy se ve své judikatuře zabýval několikrát i český Ústavní soud, přičemž ne všechny jeho závěry lze bez kritických připomínek přijmout. Jako příklad uvedu nález Ústavního soudu v kauze navrácení zámku Opočno, kde základem odůvodnění ÚS bylo tvrzení, že česká právní úprava občanského soudního řízení neopouští ani ve sporném řízení tzv. zásadu materiální pravdy, jejíž dodržování je předpokladem pro dosažení účelu soudního řízení, totiž zajistit spravedlivou ochranu práv a oprávněných zájmů účastníků řízení.4 Pojetí formální a materiální pravdy s sebou nese přirozeně řadu filosofických aspektů. Samotný pojem pravdy je předmětem zkoumání filosofie, konkrétně filosofické disciplíny ontologie. Problematikou poznatelnosti se zabývá teorií poznání, nazývaná též...

The deficits of conteporary law-making in the Czech Republic Keywords: legislative process, Parliament, legisprudence Abstract: The thesis concerns contemporary law-making process in the Czech Republic in an effort to identify its weak spots, which can lead to low-quality laws being created and passed. Rating the quality of legislative process is considered by the author to be impossible without a proper philosophical and theoretical basis. Such basis is found in the theory of legisprudence, which was conceived by L. Wintgens. Legisprudence is a theory of rational law-making and it presents itself as an alternative to mainstream jurisprudence that is focused mainly on interpreting law. In accordance with legisprudence, the legitimacy of law is dependent on bringing positive outcomes compared to a situation of absence of law. Philosophically, legisprudence is based on social contract as a mandate for the lawmaker to pass laws that only minimally encroach on freedoms. Principles of legisprudence and the requirements on lawmakers that it formulates, are applied on specific parts of the law-making process in Czech Republic. Specifically, administrative procedure of legislative drafting, legislative technique, explanatory memoranda, regulatory impact assessment, and parliamentary procedure are examined. These...

83 The separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive in the Anglo-American legal culture Abstract The thesis elaborates on the Anglo-American model of review of executive action. The aim of the thesis was to determine whether the Anglo-American model, or its individual attributes, are compatible with the Czech constitutional order. In other words, whether Czech administrative law could be inspired by the Anglo-American model. To this end, the thesis describes the organisation of executive review in the United Kingdom and the USA. On this basis, the thesis presents both the form of the Anglo-American model as a whole and its individual features. Emphasis is placed on an examination of the nature of quasi-judicial or quasi-administrative tribunals and on the issue of review by the ordinary courts, judicial review. In the final part of the thesis, an assessment of the compatibility of the Anglo-American model with the requirements of the Czech constitutional order on the form of administrative justice is made. In addition to this analysis, the thesis offers a view on a possible concept of Czech administrative justice inspired by the Anglo-American model. This corresponds to the primary motivation for writing the present thesis. This was an effort to find out whether it is possible to draw...

Liberal Theories of the Resolution of Conflicts between Human Rights This dissertation is based on two factual assumptions: (i) The existence of conflicts between human rights, which is determined by both the competitive pluralism of human rights and the existence of effective judicial mechanisms articulating the existence of these conflicts. (ii) The existence of a deep interrelationship between the concept of human rights and the concept of liberalism, which influences both structural and substantive aspects of human rights practice. Building on the assumptions just outlined, the aim of this paper is to analyse different ways of practical reasoning about the resolution of human rights conflicts in relation to the liberal human rights ethos. The first two chapters provide the basic conceptual framework relating to the two core concepts of this thesis. The first chapter, devoted to models and theories of rights, introduces Hohfeld's model of the analysis of rights as the most effective way of capturing the two competing theories of rights, namely will (choice) and interest (benefit) theory of rights. The use of Hohfeld's model shows that it is intuitively appropriate to understand the accepted concept of liberty as so-called bilateral liberty.At the same time, the analysis of the two competing...

Dissertation: The Fight against Doping in Sport in Interaction with European Union Law: Proportionality of Ineligibility and Anti-Doping Education Author: JUDr. Jan Exner This dissertation researches the interaction between the fight against doping in sport and the law of the European Union. It particularly analyses whether the World Anti-Doping Agency and other anti-doping organizations respect the proportionality of ineligibility for doping and related role of anti-doping education. The findings of this dissertation demonstrate that anti-doping organizations have crossed the borders of their conditional autonomy and good governance under European Union law through breach of the proportionality of ineligibility in interaction with anti-doping education. In particular, it concludes that they underestimate the role of education as an anti-doping element, which interacts with proportionality of ineligibility. Anti-doping education raises awareness, informs, communicates, instills values, and develops life skills and decision-making capability to prevent intentional and unintentional doping and its consequences, including a potentially disproportionate ineligibility. As such, it also enables the deterrence effect of anti-doping rules and sanctions. On top of that, the level of anti-doping education is...

Law, Progress, and the Temporality of Politics Abstract The present work is an interdisciplinary contribution to the study of late-modern temporality. Following the tradition of critical theory, it comes up with both functional and normative critique of contemporary society, which it frames with the term "anxiety society". The materialization of "anxiety society" is the experience of what Hartmut Rosa calls "frenetic standstill" in which "nothing remains the same, but nothing essentially changes". We begin our analysis with the statistics of the increasing prevalence of psychiatric patients with anxiety and depression and the related critique of how the "privatisation of stress" ignores the societal context of mental disorders. Next, the thesis will focus on the systemic causes of mental health changes in the population. We will identify the fact that the sources of mental distress are increasingly abstract as the anxiety- creating specificity of contemporary society. We live in a post-disciplinary society that is not based on the dichotomy of forbidden/allowed, but on the division of the possible and the impossible, and in which subjects increasingly control themselves in accordance with the demands of the system, so that coercion and freedom merge. However, the social pathology of the present emerges...

99 The Principle of Proportionality: Critique of Theoretical Standpoints and Its Relevance Abstract: A decision concerning a fundamental rights conflict needs to respect the principle of proportionality in order to be compatible with a constitutional order. The principle of proportionality obliges the court to adequately assess and weigh the conflicting fundamental rights or other constitutional principles in light of the particular facts. The proportionality of the decision is to be ensured by the so-called proportionality test. It consists of three steps: an assessment of the suitability, necessity and proportionality in a strict sense. The thesis The Principle of Proportionality: Critique of Theoretical Standpoints and Its Relevance describes the proportionality principle and the proportionality test in a specific legal- philosophical and legal-theoretical context. The first chapter introduces discursive theory as an important starting point for the rational application of fundamental right norms and the use of the proportionality test. For this purpose, it identifies the relationships between discourse, norms of justification and the proportionality principle. The second chapter of the thesis outlines, in relation to the existing approach of Czech legal theory, an alternative view of legal methodology...

Postmodern phenomena in law Abstract This thesis examines postmodernity and its manifestation in law and legal science. The first part is dedicated to achieving as precise definition of the term postmodernity as possible, as there is no general consensus, due to the fragmentary nature and instability of postmodern philosophy. Because of a limited quantity of comprehensive resources, describing postmodernity, available the historical perspective was applied in order to build a clear and compact narrative. The modernity movement is defined as it precedes postmodernity historically and philosophically. Postmodernity arose in reaction to the historical events which shaped the world of the twentieth century. From the detailed historical narrative are then synthesized the main defining characteristics of postmodernity. Those characteristics are: erosion, plurality, globalization, the fragmentary and liquid nature of society. The second part is predominantly dedicated to the topic of plurality as it is the basic element of postmodern thought. The comparative approach was chosen due to the ongoing globalization. Plurality as a postmodern phenomenon manifests itself significantly in the form of legal pluralism. The emphasis is put on defining legal pluralism, the additional meta-questions that head towards pondering...

Sports arbitration Abstract In this thesis, I address international sports arbitration and its application to solving a variety of legal issues. Simultaneously, I describe significant issues related to doping and performance enhancing substance abuse. I provide thorough analyses of individual international arbitration bodies; their governance over athletic environment, and appeal and dispute resolution procedures. This thesis points out selected organizational and procedural issues of international arbitration and its bodies and suggests possible solutions. I use a number of significant and notable arbitration cases (including legal case of a client I personally represented in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport) to support argument. Keywords: sports law, arbitration proceedings, International Court of Arbitration for Sport, strict liability, doping

1 Recodification of private law from the perspective of the quality of legislation Abstract: The key regulation of the recodification of private law is the Civil Code. Legislative work has insisted on it for many years, and as such, it represents a complete, internally interconnected whole. Since its approval in 2012, it has been gradually adopted by the professional and general public alike, yet when we read it, we always find something new in it that we didn't previously notice. This then leads us to various considerations on how to interpret a specific provision, and how to apply it in practice. The Civil Code is a legally precisely written set of laws, yet it contains certain ambiguities, or even inaccuracies. This thesis deals with proposals for amendments to the Civil Code, submitted to the Chamber of Deputies. There were already a total of thirty-one of these, and six of them have been successful so far. For the individual proposals, the second part of the thesis evaluates the reasons for which the changes are proposed, and also whether these changes are generally necessary, whether they are necessary to achieve the intended goal, whether a change in such a fundamental code as the Civil Code is really necessary, whether the change can be assessed as appropriate, i.e. whether its pros outweigh its...

The Role of the Grand Chambers of the Supreme Courts and of the Plenum of the Constitutional Court in Judicial Law-Making Abstract Grand Chambers (GCs) are considered to be the most authoritative judicial bodies within multi-panel supreme courts. They are said to secure the unity, continuity, and quality of these courts' decision making. This thesis explores these claims in relation to GCs of three Czech highest courts - the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Constitutional Court. What is the role of the GCs in the decision-making of these Courts and how do the GCs fulfil their role? The thesis addresses these questions from both doctrinal and empirical angles. Doctrinally, it analyses with respect to all three courts the criteria for selecting GC cases, the character of GC decisions, and the status of GC precedents. Empirically, it explores how many and what type of cases the case-selection mechanism generates and how the GC's decisions influence the decision- making of other Court formations. On the basis of this analysis, the main argument of the thesis is that courts' use of GCs influences the way the multi-panel courts develop the law. The three key parameters of any GC that the thesis identifies are (i) the justification of its authority, (ii) the means of asserting its authority...

Specifics regarding methods of interpretation of the EU law and process of EU directives transposition Abstract This thesis is dedicated to the problematics regarding specifics of the European Union law interpretation methods. While majority of publications dealing with law interpretation adopts the perspective of judges and courts, and thus deals with the interpretations they render, this study adopts the viewpoint of a Czech legislator, who is facing a challenging task of transposing directives into the Czech legal order. In order for the transposition to be conducted properly, a thorough interpretation of the respective directive must precede. There is six standard and non- standard methods of interpretation at the legislator's disposal, including linguistic, logical, systematic, historical, theological and comparative one. Do these methods, however, prove to be fully applicable in case of the interpretation of the EU directives? Possibly, what would be the EU law norms interpretation specifics? This study represents an analysis of the given topic from the perspective of a legal theory and is structured into three main sections. The first section provides a brief definition of the legal interpretation as such and presents an overview of both historical and contemporary approaches towards the...

Legally Philosophical Aspects of Searching for Truth in Civil Procedure DIPLOMA THESIS Viktor Gazda Abstract The aim of this thesis is to discuss certain legally philosophical aspects of fact- findings in civil procedure. In a simplified way, this work is focused on exploring the possibility of determining the value of truthfulness of quaestio facti when applying law. The six chapters of the work include three basic themes. The first one examines the reflection of the philosophical concepts of truth in the process of determining the facts of a case, the second one clarifies the nature of the ideological aims of fact-findings in the form of principles of formal and substantive legal truth and the third topic deals with the nature of a judge's beliefs in the truthfulness of factual claims and the role of probability in the judge's belief At first I briefly present the phenomenon of truth in a wider philosophical context so that I can then proceed to outline the selected theories of truth. After explaining the basic essence of the legal procedural principles which have the greatest impact on the process of finding the facts, I pass, in another part of the thesis, to the very analysis of these principles through the prism of selected theories of truth. The reflection of the philosophical concepts of...

1 Political Role of Courts and Judges from a European and Comparative Perspective Zuzana Vikarská The submitted dissertation examines European apex courts (i.e. the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights) and aims to answer the research question whether these judicial institutions are political and, if so, in what sense. The author puts forward five perspectives from which the political role of courts and judges can be analysed. The first dimension perceives judges as human beings who are influenced not only by legal rules but also by various non-legal influences, including political ones. In the first dimension, the notion of politics therefore stands in contrast to a certain idea of legal purity and separation of law from politics. This first dimension covers various jurisprudential perspectives on judicial decision-making, but also issues such as transparency of judicial institutions or the quality of judicial reasoning. The second dimension looks at the nomination procedures that lead to judicial appointments at the European apex courts. In this case, politics means the participation of political actors in the process of selecting candidates for the judicial functions. In this meaning, the notion of politics stands in opposition to the notion of expertise. The...

The proportionality of punishment to the wealth of an offender Abstract This thesis focuses on a contentious issue: Should a fine be related to the wealth of an offender? The first chapter presents various philosophical answers to this question, with most of the attention being directed to the division of fines to regulatory and penal by O'Malley. The contribution of law and economics and other theories is emphasized as well. The second chapter considers the jurisprudence of the Constitutional, Supreme Administrative and Supreme Court of the Czech Republic in relation to the principle of prohibition of fine's liquidation effect on the offender. Based on this analysis, a simplified cheatsheet is presented for government officials to better identify when a fine might have liquidation effect. Fine in the sphere of criminal law is the subject of third chapter. After discussing the theoretical foundations of day-fine concept, its application at two Czech district courts is analyzed. The results suggest that the day-fine concept exists only on paper. To find out why the concept does not work, I have analyzed all relevant legislation of European states relating to the day-fine concept. Based on this comparative analysis I suggest what should be done to improve current legislation in the Czech Republic. My last...

Theoretical bases for the limitation of fundamental rights and freedoms in the Czech Republic In the Czech Republic, the conception of fundamental rights and the conditions for their limitations are the result of a specific interpretation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms by the Constitutional Court, which in turn reflects its own views on constitutional theory. Despite being presented almost dogmatically, the confrontation with foreign literature suggests that the so-called external theory of the Constitutional Court finds strong opponent in the so-called internal theory. Internal theory sheds doubts on such hallmarks of the Court's doctrine like the wide conception of fundamental rights, the principle of proportionality or the very existence of conflicts of constitutional values. In this thesis, it is argued that although the internal theory cannot substitute for the external theory at the moment, it represents an opportunity for the Constitutional Court to reassess its current position in order for it to better depict the aims of the constitution-maker, to respect the policies of the legislator and - above all - to take fundamental rights seriously. In particular, it is claimed that the optimal model of the limitation of fundamental rights dully distinguishes between definition and...

1 Abstract Thesis title: Hate speech throughout the continents The aim of this thesis is to shed light on standings and rulings of the United States Supreme Court and the European Court of Human rights in hate speech cases. It defines the term "hate speech" and presents grounds used for its restrictions when it comes to freedom of expression. Through introducing established principles that govern the decision-making of both courts and analysing them in key judgments on both continents, the author is trying to determine possible alterations that may lead to enhancing the protection given by hate speech case-law. The author also analyses historical and social impact on the case-law of both the Supreme Court and the ECHR and finds that this influence has led to establishment of crucial principles without which the hate speech cases could hardly be decided today. Both historical and social factors lead the author to the conclusion that the protection against hate speech could still use a tune-up. In author's point of view, the Supreme Court should ease the grip on the First Amendment and give the "true threats" principle, established in Virginia v. Black, leave to prohibit not only intimidating expressions but harmful expressions as well - both physical and mental. The Supreme Court should also strengthen the...

This work focuses on the contemporary form of the constitutional principles of equality and non-discrimination. These are human rights which have been formed in the society during last decades, and these changes have usually been dynamic and also crucial. For the purpose of understanding these principles and their position in the society, this work deals with analysis, development and influential factors related to these principles. First of all, this work provides general description of principles, which is a terminological basis, it also analyses constitutional principles and legal interpretation. Then it focuses on the principles of equality and non-discrimination, their relation and possibility of restriction. Besides from explanation of the relevant terms, this work also contains their more detailed analysis. The second chapter describes the process of enshrining these principles and strengthening their role in the society. Furthermore, it focuses on the process of enshrining itself, and provides examples of subjects and processes supporting this extension. The end of this chapter is a thought about the name of this work, and it contains primarily the examples from today, which demonstrate the scope of changes regarding these principles. The work also includes consideration of the question which ideas...

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the protective function of constitutional rights as compared to the traditional defensive function. Whereas the defensive function of constitutional rights requires that the state does not interfere with and respect the constitutional rights of the individual, the protective function requires the state to act to promote and protect constitutional rights. The problematic is examined primarily through the case-law of three foreign supreme jurisdictions, i.e. the Supreme Court of the United States of America, the Federal Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Court of Human Rights. In the broader perspective the thesis aims to assess the approach taken by the Czech Constitutional Court in relation to this problematic. The protective function of constitutional rights is explored through the perspective of the individual and through the perspective of the system. The thesis is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, the author clarifies fundamental theoretical concepts used in the thesis. The positive and negative concept of constitutional rights is closely connected to the two concepts of freedom as developed by I. Berlin in his famous essay Two Concepts of Freedom. The protective function also represents a specific legal...

This work examines the compatibility of prohibition of discrimination in private law and the principle of autonomy of will which is the leading principle of private law. For this purpose, the work analyses both principles and their limits, examines their conflict and possible coexistence. First of all, this work deals with the prohibition of discrimination in private relationships and the extend of its effect. This extend is limited by the scope of the Antidiscrimination Act as well as by certain exceptions from equal treatment. Considering the fact that antidiscrimination law does not have a long tradition in the Czech Republic, this work uses international law and EU law, as well as relevant case law, to interpret the norms of antidiscrimination law. Further, this work focuses on the principle of autonomy of will which is the fundamental prerequisite for realization of the will of individuals in private law. Besides the content of the principle of autonomy of will, this work analyses its limitations given by private law acts, especially Civil Code and Labour Code. The conflict of prohibition of discrimination and the autonomy of will is can be perceived from different perspectives. Some of them are mentioned in this work. In essence, this conflict is a conflict of two fundamental rights, equality...