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Does Political Ideology Influence the Czech Counstitutional Court's Decision-making?
Chmel, Jan ; Wintr, Jan (advisor) ; Kühn, Zdeněk (referee)
In the presented thesis the author analyses the possible influence of judges' ideolog-ical beliefs on the Czech Constitutional court decision making. The thesis is divided into two parts, theoretical and analytical one. The first part emphasizes the need to distin-guish between the fact that courts' decisions have political consequences and the suspi-cion that those decisions are made in a political way. The theoretical part thus focuses on the discussions on the judicialization of politics, constitutional interpretation, judicial legitimacy and the attitudinal model of judicial decision making. Since the judge can no longer be seen only as "the mouth that pronounces the words of the law", other factors than the text of law (or the Constitution) that determine their decisions should be taken into account. Political beliefs could be one of such factors. Nevertheless, the author ar-gues, that judges lack democratic legitimacy for making purely political decisions and so it is important that they suppress the conscious or subconscious tendency to decide the constitutional cases according to their ideological beliefs. It is thus useful to test the sceptical hypothesis, that what judges do is actually pure politics. It is argued that the analysis of the decision making can be enriched by employing the...
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Profiling and Legal Regulation of Privacy Protection
Marečková, Dana ; Kühn, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Tryzna, Jan (referee)
The purpose of this thesis is to elucidate what online profiling is, what happens with users' or customers' personal data during this process, how these activities interfere with the individuals' right to privacy, what the legal regulation in this field is, whether the privacy interests of individuals are sufficiently protected and if not, how the situation might be improved. The thesis starts with description of todays' business practices that are based on collecting data about customers, analyzing it and creating profiles suggesting the most profitable behaviour of businesses towards customers. It is followed by explanation of the technological tools enabling data collection and the method of data mining that is the key enabler of creating profiles. The text continues with description of risks of profiling in relation to privacy, i.e. the issues of discrimination, de-individualisation, restriction of individual autonomy, information asymmetries and possible misuse of profiles. The notion of right to privacy is explained and other interests that have to be balanced with privacy are mentioned as well. After that follows a critical description of the current legal framework in the European Union. It consists of Data Protection Directive, ePrivacy Directive and since 2018 of the General Data...
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Judiciary and the Right to a Fair Trial in Communist Czechoslovakia 1948 - 1989
Guckler, Daniel ; Wintr, Jan (advisor) ; Kühn, Zdeněk (referee)
The aim of the study is to map and judge the level of the right to a fair trial in Czechoslovakia after the communist revolution in relation to the minimum requirements imposed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Czechoslovakia did not ratified this Convention and therefore it is not regarded in terms of the applicable law, but in terms of timeless principles of fair trial as expressed in the Convention. Even present case law speaks about the need to comply with the timeless principles of a fair trial, namely the decision of the Supreme Court in the case Ludmila Brožová-Polednová, file number 7 Tdo 549/2008, and the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Pavel Vítek, file number 7 TZ 179/99, which was also analysed by the author. The Convention is useful for comparing with regard to the time of its creation when there was in Czechoslovakia "intensification of the struggle against the class enemy" as Communist terminology justified escalating process of violations of the right to a fair trial. The starting point will be not only in classification of cases of violations of the right to a fair trial under Article 6 or other rights and freedoms of the Convention as it took place in Czechoslovak judiciary from 1948 to 1989 but also an understanding the situation in the legal environment at...
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Social contract as a rational choice
Froněk, Martin ; Wintr, Jan (advisor) ; Kühn, Zdeněk (referee)
Social contract as a rational choice The thesis is intended to be an introduction into contemporary social contract theories which are elaborated within the methodological framework of the rational choice theory. John Rawls' book A Theory of Justice is a seminal work in this field. The thesis, however, does focus not only on the approach adopted by Rawls, but on the theories of other authors as well - that of J. Buchanan, D. Gauthier, T. Scanlon and R. Nozick. These remain quite unknown in the Czech context. The structure of the thesis should allow for a comparison between the respective theories as the author starts with the object of the social contract, proceeds to the parties to the contract and, finally, to its content. Special attention is devoted to the game theory which models some of the typical interpersonal interactions and, using its theoretical apparatus, can illustrate problems of social cooperation - the key theme of virtually all social contract theories. Following Schelling's theory of focal points an expressive theory of law is discussed. In the next part of the thesis the author illustrates mechanisms of maintaining of social order with the help of latest empirical studies. Eventually, the author tries to outline the way analytic philosophy views the social contract as a system...
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How facticity influences normativity: conventions in law
Rygl, Vojtěch ; Kühn, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Tryzna, Jan (referee)
How facticity influences normativity: conventions in law This thesis is about social practice and its influence on the legal system. We examine the basic philosophical approaches to law and use them to challenge the very existence of conventions in law. After we derive the basic notion of convention we develop the three-step test to guarantee that we are able to identify conventions within the legal system and distinguish them from other categories of legal notions. The three-step test presented in chapter two is slightly modifying Andrei Mamor's test. The first criterion of the test is the existence of certain social group that maintains in certain situation specific conventional rule. The second criterion is build around the idea that conventions exist when there are people who have certain reasons to comply with this rule. Final criterion represents the existence of an alternative rule that could be upheld by those people as well. Nevertheless, those people rather comply with the conventional rule. If those three criterions are met, it is probable that we are dealing with conventions. We conclude that the conventions are present within every system of social norms although its importance within various legal cultures and systems varies dramatically. The value of social practice for legal practice shall...
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An Austrian Critique of the Traditional Chicago Approach to Law and Economics
Sztefek, Martin ; Kühn, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Tryzna, Jan (referee)
An Austrian Critique of the Traditional Chicago Approach to Law and Economics Although the economic analysis of law has been recently on the rise, many authors seem to question the possibility of its application in the field of judicial decision-making or legislative lawmaking. The main goal of this thesis is therefore, besides the descriptive part, to present a coherent critique of the theoretical foundations of the traditional economic approach to law, represented by the Chicago school of economics, from the perspective of the Austrian school of economics. Given the complexity of the topic, the analysis is focused only on the basic concepts of the economic analysis of law. Chapter one deals with the Austrian school and its economic method. The development and basic characteristic of this school of thought are presented in this chapter as well. The key part consists in the introduction of the basic principles of Austrian economics, which are further used in analysing significant assumptions and concepts of the economic analysis of law. Chapter two is focused on law and economics as such. Basic concepts are introduced as well as confronted with the teachings of the Austrian School. Also, some of the implications which the economic analysis has for law are presented in this chapter, namely...
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Race and Equality from the Perspective of Law
Šipkovská, Silvie ; Kühn, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Wintr, Jan (referee)
Race and Equality from the Perspective of Law In this thesis, the author deals with the phenomenon of racial discrimination from the perspective of law. In order to understand the issue, it is necessary to set discrimination in a broader socio-scientific context. Therefore, the author draws not only from legal sources, but also from other social sciences. Other important sources of information were the reports and recommendations of non-governmental organisations, which play an important and irreplaceable role in the area of anti-discrimination policy and its implementation. The main focus of this thesis, therefore, is comprehensive treatment of the issue, taking into account its interdisciplinary context. The content of the thesis is divided into four parts. The purpose of the first part is to introduce the reader to the issue of discrimination and explain the basic concepts of the theory of race, equality and discrimination. The second part details the international mechanisms of protection against racial discrimination - in the framework of the United Nations organization, International Labour Organization, Council of Europe and the European Union. The third part describes the national system of protection against racial discrimination according to the hierarchy of national sources of law, i.e....
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The proportionality of punishment with regard to the wealth of the offender
Drápal, Jakub ; Kühn, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Tryzna, Jan (referee)
The proportionality of punishment with regard to the wealth of an offender Master's Thesis Jakub Drápal Summary This thesis's main question is whether or not pecuniary punishments should be proportionate to the wealth of an offender. In the beginning the philosophical aspects and opinions of Law and Economics are examined. Jurisprudence of Czech Constitutional Court is discussed as administrative and penal law with their respective jurisdictions, Supreme Court, Supreme Administrative Court and Constitutional Court. Private and supranational law is also considered. The practical part of the thesis is composed of an analysis of the way how are pecuniary punishments in the form of day fines set at two Czech courts. The outcome is that the concept of day fines is not applied in the Czech Republic and is not accepted by the judges. Even though richer offenders get higher sentences than the poorer ones, in proportion to the punishment the richer receive much lesser sentence. To sum-up the findings, it is not possible today to give a unequivocal answer to the key question, whether pecuniary punishment should be proportionate to the wealth of an offender. It is possible in several areas of law, as it is possible to often choose, whether or not it is effective. General and abstract question however has to be left...
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The position of sharia within the legal systems of Arab states in the Near East
Lvová, Michala ; Maršálek, Pavel (advisor) ; Kühn, Zdeněk (referee)
The position of sharia within the legal systems of Arab states in the Near East The aim of the thesis is to produce a brief but coherent overview of the position of the Islamic law - sharia - within the contemporary legal systems of Arab states in the Near East. This particular part of the Arab and Islamic world was chosen primarily because of two reason: First, the necessary condition for a direct research of available sources is at least basic knowledge of the appropriate language - in this case, Arabic. This is also the reason why other states, which are historically and geographically part of the Near East, were excluded here, especially Turkey and Iran. Second: the Near East region was chosen as a complex part of the Arab world. States in the Northern Africa were excluded because their cultural position is different from that of the states in the Near East. The method chosen tu fulfil the purposes of this thesis was to first briefly summarise the contemporary state of the Czech literature specialised in the field of the Islamic law. The second chapter offers a short introduction in sharia, its origin, sources, schools of law, and basic branches and other concepts. The following three chapters deal each with one of the selected three Arabic states: Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria. In each of...
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Interpretation of multilingual legal texts
Fatura, Martin ; Kühn, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Tryzna, Jan (referee)
This thesis deals with the possibilities of interpretation of legal texts au- thentic in more than one language and attempts to analyze the approaches applicable as a possible solution of contradictions between various langu- age versions. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an intro- duction to the issue. There is just roughly outlined the reason for the exis- tence of multilingual legal texts and there is also defined the scope of the following chapters. The second chapter is dedicated to various methods of interpretation, distinct by legal doctrine. With regard to the topic of the thesis, the inter- pretive methods are divided into two groups with respect to the approach of finding the meaning of legal norms and the content of the regulation. The first section deals with methods based on the text of the legal norm. These are linguistic, logical and systematic method. The second section describes the methods based on the purpose and significance of the treatment. These are the teleological, the historical and the comparative method, as well as the modifications of the teleological method, used primarily in internati- onal law and law of European union. The way of choosing the primary interpretation method is described in the third section. The third chapter deals with the...
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