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Theories of Judicial Decision-Making confronted the Functioning of Czech Courts
Blažková, Kristina ; Kysela, Jan (advisor) ; Wintr, Jan (referee) ; Šimíček, Vojtěch (referee)
Theories of Judicial Decision-Making confronted the Functioning of Czech Courts Abstract Judicial decision-making in hard cases is not a rationalisation which legitimates a choice made based on non-legal grounds, but a relatively predictable, determined and just process which draws legitimacy from the rationality of legal thinking and is significantly influenced by the judge's effort to make the best decision possible considering his conception of law and general training. Based on this proposition the dissertation thesis explores the effect of the judge's conception of law and his judicial function on his legal argumentation and his decision-making in hard cases. The main concept the thesis thus being the judicial philosophy. The dissertation thesis firstly analyses the concept theoretically and subsequently tests the theory on real judicial practice. The hypothesis is that judges of apex courts have different judicial philosophies and that their opposing views on grounds of law and their judicial function exhibits itself in their decision-making in hard cases. The disagreement between judges may be characterised as reasonable disagreement. In situations of reasonable disagreement, the opposing parties are incapable of reaching a compromise despite perfectly sound and grounded positions and mutual effort...
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The Role of the Grand Chambers of the Supreme Courts and of the Plenum of the Constitutional Court in Judicial Law-Making
Kadlec, Ondřej ; Kühn, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Šimíček, Vojtěch (referee) ; Wintr, Jan (referee) ; Tryzna, Jan (referee)
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...
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Recent reforms of federalism in German speaking countries
Chmel, Marek ; Kysela, Jan (advisor) ; Reschová, Jana (referee) ; Šimíček, Vojtěch (referee)
The purpose of this thesis is to acquaint the reader with the processes and the results of the recent reforms of federalism in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It is remarkable that in spite of their historical, geographical and cultural proximity show these federal countries substantive differences in the institutional framework as well as in the execution of the reform procedures. This thesis considers also the potential possibility to (partly) apply the knowledge and experience of these reforms within the EU framework. Despite difficult comparison of the EU with the federal countries there are certain identical elements and processes, may it be the execution of the shared competences or reallocation of the public finances. In order to better understand these deliberations and due to the modest Czech literature on federalism and federations the thesis provides also historical perspective as well as broader theoretical background.
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Problems of legitimacy of the national and supranational political system in theory and practice
Belling, Vojtěch ; Kučera, Rudolf (advisor) ; Simíček, Vojtěch (referee) ; Kysela, Jan (referee)
The issue of legitimacy and sovereignty represents an increasingly important topic in scientific and political debates in the context of the ongoing multinational integration. There are essentially two basic theoretical approaches: the acceptance of the concept of legitimacy and sovereignty in the sense of derivability of all public authorities and the positive law from one abstract symbolic centre (its premise is differentiation, although not separation of state and society) or its refusal in the favour of plurality of power and "multi-level" system of political order which depends on this very pluralism. Although the proponents of pluralism try to posit the middle position between integration advocates and statist approach, their theory is in fact an extreme position, one which stands in clear contrast to traditional concepts of political theory, which counted on a particular fixed point in the standards and policies, and one which constitutes a basis for challenging the modern democratic constitutional system. In this work it is considered that the basic concepts of political theory, based on a certain constitutional order, themselves form and constitute the political and legal system. In this sense the constitution itself can be regarded as an attempt of enforceable constituting of political and social...
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