Czech Republic
Czech Republic in Europe
☑️ This element is an expansion of the content of Lawi's courses, guides, tools and other solutions. It offers facts, commentary, and analysis on this European topic. Do you like what you read? Like and share it with your family and friends so that others can discover it too. If you have been forwarded this element, please subscribe here. According to the work "Guide to Foreign and International Citations", by the Journal of International Law and Politics (New York University School of Law): "It is comprised of thirteen Administrative Regions (kraje) and the Capital City (hlavni mesto). The legal system is a civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes. The Constitution of the Czech Republic explicitly defines civil rights, the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of power, and the independence of the judiciary. The constitutional institutions include:
the President (Chief of State),
the Parliament (comprising the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate),
the Government (comprising the Prime Minister, as Head of Government, the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers),
the Constitutional Court,
the system of courts (including the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court and superior, regional and district courts) and others.
The President is elected to a term of five years by the members of both chambers of Parliament; the President may serve a maximum of two successive terms in office. Although presidential power is limited, the President retains the right to veto any bill passed by Parliament, with the exception of constitutional bills. This power is void in times of constitutional or other political crises. Parliament consists of two chambers: the Chamber of Deputies (Poslanecká sněmovna Parlamentu České republiky) and the Senate (Senát Parlamentu České republiky). Members of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are directly elected by the people. The Chamber of Deputies consists of 200 deputies who are elected to terms of four years on the basis of proportional representation. Political parties must obtain at least five percent of the popular vote in order to gain seats in the Chamber. The President may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies as outlined in Article 35 of the Constitution. The Senate consists of eighty-one senators elected to six-year terms on the basis of majority vote; every two years, one-third of the Senate’s members come up for election. The Senate cannot be dissolved. Parliament passes all bills and expresses approval of important international treaties. Itdec ides the most important acts of state, such as declaring war or approving the deployment of foreign armies on Czech soil. A resolution by a parliamentary chamber is passed by a clear majority of deputies or senators present. A constitutional bill or an international treaty must be approved by 60 percent of the total number of deputies and senators present. All bills are introduced in the Chamber of Deputies. Individual deputies, groups of deputies, the Senate, the Cabinet, and local or regional representatives all possess the right of legislative initiative. Once a bill is passed by the Chamber of Deputies, it is sent to the Senate which has the power to veto it, send it back to the Chamber of Deputies with amendments, or table the bill. The Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud) is a separate judicial body whose duty is to protect constitutional rights. It consists of fifteen Justices who are appointed to ten-year terms by the President with the consent of the Senate. Constitutional Court Justices are bound only by constitutional laws, international treaties, and by a law designating the proceedings of the Constitutional Court. The Supreme Court (Nejvyšší soud České republiky) is the supreme judicial body in all matters except those within the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court. Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life by the President. Their decisions are bound only by law, and they are empowered to determine whether other legal regulations are in accordance with the law. The Supreme Court´s docket mainly consists of appeals on issues of law arising from appellate court decisions, and in recognizing and enforcing foreign judgments." Online Resources:
Prague Castle (President): hrad.cz
The Czech Republic Government: vlada.cz
Parliament - Chamber of Deputies: psp.cz
Parliament – Senate: senat.cz
The Constitutional Court: concourt.cz
The Supreme Court: nsoud.cz
Description of Czech Republic
The Concise Publication of the European Union describes czech republic in the following terms: [1] Created with artificial boundaries after World War I, Czechoslovakia was invaded and occupied by Germany in World War II until its 'liberation' by Soviet troops in 1945. In 1948 a communist coup brought the country under the domination of the Soviet Union. Alexander Dubcek's 'Prague Spring' of 1968 was quickly crushed, ending an attempt to introduce 'Socialism with a human face', but the 1989 'Velvet Revolution', in which the Communist Party Central Committee was forced to resign after a massive popular protest, was in the Czech tradition of intellectual independence going back to a 15th century martyr, Jan Hus. It was thus natural that it should fall to a dissident writer, Vaclav Havel, to lead a mixed government through a programme of political and economic reform, until the elections of 1990 brought the defeat of the remaining communists. Nationalist feelings, long suppressed under the grip of the Soviet Union, came to the fore with freedom, soon leading to the separation of the Czech and Slovak states. In 1993 Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic (a post to which he was re-elected in 1998).
There followed a period of triumph and setback. At first, under Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus, the Republic appeared a model of success for liberalisation. Regulation was eschewed and industry privatised on an unprecedented scale through the issue of vouchers to the population. Foreign investment was attracted and economic growth was rapid. The Republic was accepted as a future member of the EU (despite the Commission's bizarre challenge to the Czech policy of banning former secret police and communist activists from public office). But the unfettered operation of free markets proved a mixed blessing (see more in this European publication). Bank-dominated investment funds bought up the privatisation vouchers and the stock exchange became a crooks' paradise (see more in this European publication). Industrial restructuring was held back by corruption, bankruptcies and the conflicting lending and ownership roles of the financial sector (see more in this European publication). Growth stalled and the foreign trade deficit grew. Pollution inherited from the communist years was a menace to public health.
Late in 1997 Klaus was forced to resign, brought down as much by the realisation that his economic miracle was evaporating as by allegations that his party had accepted bribes in return for ensuring the success of a privatisation deal. Nevertheless, the country joined NATO in 1999, and with the highest standard of living of the major East European countries, its future as a member state of the EU, perhaps around 2005, seems assured.
Resources
Notas y References
Based on the book "A Concise Publication of the European Union from Aachen to Zollverein", by Rodney Leach (Profile Books; London)
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