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Constitution of the Czech Republic (1993)

Constitution of the Czech Republic (hereinafter “the Constitution”) was enacted by the Czech National Council on 16 December 1992 as the Constitutional Act no. 1/1993 Coll. On that day, 198 out of 200 members of the National Council were present; 172 deputies voted in favour of the adoption of the Constitution, 16 deputies voted against it and 10 members abstained from voting. The Constitution was published in the Journal of Laws on 28 December 1992 and came into effect on 1 January 1993. The Constitution consists of the preamble and eight chapters, which encompass the fundamental provisions, institutions of the legislative, executive and judicial power, the Supreme Auditing Office, the Czech National Bank, territorial self-government, and transitional and final provisions. On the day of its adoption the Constitution consisted of 113 articles.

In the preamble, the Constitution declares the continuity of the independent Czech state with the integrative traditions of the long-existing statehood of the lands of the Czech Crown, as well as of the Czechoslovak statehood, and emphasizes fundamental civil and human rights and other value-oriented bases of the Constitution. The text of the preamble also serves as a directive for interpretation and application of the Constitution. Among others, the Constitution regulates the following fundamental aspects of the state – the state sovereignty and independence, republican and democratic form of governance, parliamentary system and the separation of powers, unitary nature of the state, rule of law, respect for human rights and liberties, for the right to territorial self-government and for the protections of these rights, compliance with obligations stemming from international law, and membership of the Czech Republic in the (European) supranational organization.

In the same time, the Constitution introduced the once and future notion of constitutional order (see art. 3 and art. 112 paragraph 1), which forms, in its constitutional context, a general notion encompassing the Constitution as such, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms (which has formed a part of the constitutional order since 1991), and other sources of law cited in art. 112 paragraph 1 of the Constitution, i.e. the constitutional acts adopted pursuant to this Constitution, and those constitutional acts of the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic, the Federal Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and the Czech National Council defining the state borders of the Czech Republic, as well as constitutional acts of the Czech National Council adopted after the 6 June 1992. The Czech Constitutional Court held, however, in the widely debated judgment Pl. ÚS 36/01 that the mentioned list is merely demonstrative because the international human rights treaties incorporated into the Czech legal order according to the legal provisions in force until 31 May 2002 (i.e. before the Constitutional act no. 395/2001 Coll. - the so called euro-amendment of the Constitution – came into effect) form a part of the constitutional order. In any case, the notion of constitutional order demonstrates the necessity of acknowledging the constitution of the Czech Republic in the wider sense and, in the same time, proves the poly-legal nature of the Czech constitutional system.

The Czech Constitution is rigid. According to art. 39 paragraph 4 of the Constitution, an asymmetrical qualified majority of the three fifths of all deputies and of the three fifths of the present senators is required to amend the Constitution. The ordinary acts, on the other hand, require the consent of majority of the present deputies and of the present senators while one-third of the members of each chamber (the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate) constitutes a quorum (art. 39 paragraph 1 and 2 of the Constitution).

With regard to the sources of constitutional law, the significance of the Constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms (hereinafter “the Charter”) shall be emphasized. These two documents form the main two parts of the constitutional order and of the Czech constitutional system as such. As to their content, the Constitution and the Charter are the two main substantive parts of the Czech constitution in the wider sense. Due to the political reasons in the time of adoption of the Constitution, the two documents are formally distinctive. From the point of view of modern constitutionalism and the object of its regulation (with regard to its civic and natural-law nature), however, they are closely related, both as to the subject matter and the organization.  The Constitution lays down the fundamental constitutional values (in the chapter concerning fundamental provisions), constitutional and institutional presumptions of the state power (in the meaning of creation and subsequent functioning of the constitutional institutions and their mutual relations), and organizational and procedural aspects of the state's functioning (be it the principles of law-making, form and rules of appointments to the constitutional functions, or the rules of procedure). Next, the basic regulation of the territorial self-government is enshrined in the Constitution. The Charter is concerned with the constitutional status of man and citizen, i.e. with her fundamental rights and freedoms. The Charter also establishes the Czech Republic as a state following the principle of secularism (article 2 paragraph 1).

It is necessary to interpret the content of the Constitution (including the preamble) in a systemic way. One of the key provisions of the Constitution is article 9 paragraph 2, which has introduced the concept of “the essential requirements for a democratic state governed by the rule of law”. As generally accepted, the core of this concept is formed by the protection of the Czech constitutional system. Object of this protection encompasses the aforementioned values and aspects of the state, usually reflecting the preconditions of political pluralism, free political competition and exercise of public authority, human rights, and rule of law. However, the list of these values cannot be found in the text of the Constitution (cf. judgment of the Constitutional Court Pl. ÚS 19/93). The supra-constitutional nature of these values lies in their material identity (credibility and consistency) and continuity of their impact. Generally stated art. 9 paragraph 2 of the Constitution obliges the public authorities to contribute to fulfilling these values and maintaining the identity and continuity of the Constitution and, on the other hand, to further elaborate and specify the mentioned values (cf. Rychetský In: Rychetský, P., Langášek, T., Herc, T., Mlsna, P. et al., 2015, p. 96).

The Constitutional Act no. 4/1993 Coll., on measures related to the dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (CSFR), has played an important role as to the dynamics and continuity of the legal order. Apart from delegation of competence of supreme and central bodies of CSFR to the bodies of the Czech Republic, it mainly regulates the reception of the legislation valid on the day of the dissolution with the exception of provisions depending upon existence of CSFR (such provisions are not applicable). In the case of conflict between the legal rules of the Czech Republic, which were issued prior to the dissolution of CSFR, on the one hand, and the rules of CSFR on the other hand, the legal rules of the Czech Republic should be followed.

Bibliography:

Pavlíček, V., Hřebejk, J.: Ústava a ústavní řád České republiky. Svazek I.: Ústava České republiky, Prah: Linde, 1994.

Hendrych, D., Svoboda, C. a kolektiv: Ústava České republiky. Komentář. 1. Vydání. Praha, C. H. Beck 1997.

Sládeček, V., Mikule, V., Syllová, J.: Ústava České republiky. Komentář. 1. Vyd. Praha C. h. Beck, 2007.

Klíma, K. et al.: Komentář k Ústavě a Listině. 2. vyd. Plzeň: Aleš Čeněk, 2009.

Banýľová, L., Filip, J., Molek, P., Podhrázký, M., Suchánek, R., Šimíček, V., Vyhnánek, L.: Ústava České republiky. Komentář. Praha: Linde 2010.

Rychetský, P., Langášek, T., Herc, T., Mlsna, P. a kol. Ústava České republiky. Ústavní zákon  o bezpečnosti České republiky. Komentář. Praha: Wolters Kluwer, a. s., 2015.