The Czech Republic: The Constitutional Court on the Lisbon Treaty Decision of 26 November 2008

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Bříza

On 26 November 2008 the Czech Constitutional Court (hereinafter Court) handed down a long-awaited opinion in which it unanimously found the Lisbon Treaty (hereinafter Treaty) to be compatible with the Czech constitutional order. The decision has drawn broad attention at all levels, be it political circles, academia or even general public. It is certainly one of the most significant decisions in the Court's history and it has EU-wide implications.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Komenda ◽  
Jiří Jarkovský ◽  
Daniel Klimeš ◽  
Petr Panoška ◽  
Ondřej Šanca ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of providing access to data plays a crucial role in providing the general public and media with up-to-date information. Open datasets also represent one of the means for evaluation of the pandemic on a global level. OBJECTIVE The primary aim of this paper is to describe the methodical and technical framework for publishing datasets describing basic and advanced epidemiological characteristics related to the COVID-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic, including the use of these datasets in practice. METHODS As a reaction to the epidemic situation, a new portal COVID‑19: Current Situation in the Czech Republic was developed and launched in March 2020 to provide a fully-fledged and trustworthy source of information for the public and media. The portal also contains a section for the publication of (i) public open datasets available for download in CSV and JSON formats and (ii) authorized-access-only section where the authorized persons can (through an online generated token) safely visualize or download regional datasets with aggregated data at the level of the individual municipalities and regions. The data are also provided to the local open data catalogue of the Ministry of Health and to the National Catalogue of Open Data. RESULTS The datasets have been published in various authentication regimes and widely used by general public, scientists, public authorities and decision-makers. The total number of API calls since its launch in March 2020 to 15th December 2020 exceeded 13 million. The datasets have been adopted as an official and guaranteed source for outputs of third parties, including public authorities, non-governmental organizations, scientists and online news portals. CONCLUSIONS Datasets currently published as open data meet the 3-star open data requirements, which makes them machine-readable and facilitates their further usage without restrictions. This is essential for making the data more easily understandable and usable for data consumers. In conjunction with the strategy of the MH in the field of data opening, additional datasets meeting the already implemented standards will be also released, both on COVID-19 related and unrelated topics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Smida ◽  
J Loosova ◽  
J Prattingerova ◽  
V Zabka ◽  
D Vrbik ◽  
...  

Abstract There is no central information system supporting epidemiological surveillance in the case of the Czech Republic. For efficient management of epidemiological data, it is advisable to use a Geographic Information System (GIS), in which data can be managed based on their geographical component. The advantages of GIS are not only all tools for managing an ordinary database but also functions typical for geographic data. Technical University of Liberec (Czech Republic) with the support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic guarantees the design and building of an information system with GIS features designed for the solution of epidemics within the chosen region of the Czech Republic (Regional Hygiene Station of the Liberec Region). The concept of the information system is based on the requirement to use Open Source tools without the need for future license fees. A substantial part of the system is programmed (R language). Data input will be provided by forms and questionnaires (pre-prepared, editable). The database will be based on demographic data along with multiple time and geographical data (useful for the construction of epidemiological curves and data representation in maps). Data input is possible via any platform (desktop, smartphones, mobile GIS for fieldwork). The output console is designed to work with data organized in maps. After the necessary anonymization and aggregation of data, some of the data is designed to be made available to the general public. Emphasis is placed on the communication role of the information system in providing information from and to the public. The research team is multidisciplinary (epidemiologists, geographers, programmers, sociologists). The development of the information system has been started in 2019 on the example of alimentary diseases. A part of it has been used since March 2020 for monitoring COVID-19 within the Liberec Region. Full completion and commissioning are set for 2021. Key messages Geographic Information System is an effective database, analytical and communication tool for epidemilogy. The information system must enable communication with experts and the general public.


Author(s):  
Liběna Černohorská ◽  
Jana Janderová ◽  
Veronika Procházková

The article analyses monetary policy response to the world financial crisis and focuses more closely on the monetary policy of the Czech National Bank (CNB) at this time. Until 2007, the implementation of monetary policy in OECD countries was perceived very positively. However, the financial crisis has clearly shown that the world’s financial markets are highly interconnected, and this can have a major impact on individual national economies. Therefore, the monetary policy strategy has changed from a policy based on the so-called flexible inflation targeting. Ensuring price stability is emphasised as part of the monetary policy role of the CNB in the provisions of Article 98 of the Constitution, in the Czech Republic. CNB is perceived as one of the most independent central banks, the contituional dimension of its independence being confirmed by case law of the Czech Constitutional Court. In response to the financial crisis, CNB was forced to pursue unconventional monetary policy in the form of foreign exchange interventions between 2013 and 2017. However, during the time period of these interventions, CNB policy did not lead to achievement of the inflation target. Following the completion of foreign exchange interventions, CNB returned to conventional monetary policy through interest rates.


ICL Journal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo Šlosarčík

AbstractBefore 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, Lisbon Treaty, Slovak Pensions), the article will demonstrate how the Czech Constitutional Court combined a conservative and pragmatic approach in its EU law related case-law by formulating a constitutional doctrine of a ‘EU-friendly’ interpretation of Czech constitutional rules, while, at the same time, leaving the EU law formally outside the frontiers of Czech constitutional law and refusing EU law to be used as the ultimate argument in intra-judiciary disputes in the Czech Republic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-140
Author(s):  
Jana Janderová

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 legality and proportionality as the key elements of the rule of law, their cases were analysed using a comparative method. The article identifies a general tendency in legally difficult cases to move from purely linguistic interpretation to interpretation through values, including the rule of law. Most of the analysed cases reveal that the formalistic interpretation was strongly criticised by both the Constitutional and the Supreme Administrative courts. However, slight differences in their perception of the principles of legality and proportionality were discerned, namely in the debate on the intensity of control exercised by administrative courts over factual and discretionary decisions by administrative authorities. Nevertheless, these differences produce beneficial effects, as both principles continue being developed thanks to the exchange of opinions between the courts. Further research could be conducted for similar countries in the region.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
Michael Kohajda ◽  
Jiri Moravec

The aim of the article is to discover fundamental regulating legislative activities of municipalities in the field of hazard games. For several recent years there have been a lot of problematic cases relating to authorisations to carry on hazard games in the Czech towns and villages that have had to be decided by the Ministry of Finance and later by administrative courts and the Constitutional Court. Some of the decisions can be considered fundamental and very relevant for fundamental principles of municipal legislation making. The authors focus on elected court decisions with the aim to evaluate the practise of municipalities in the field.


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