Publication details
The Czech Constitutional Court: Far away from political influence
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | Although the Czech Constitutional Court (CCC) started as a fairly low-key institution, nowadays, it is often praised as a particularly strong actor of the domestic political system, earning therefore a prominent position among the Central and East European constitutional courts. Yet, the evidence of the CCC’s activity and effect of its case law, especially towards the legislator, stands mostly on anecdotal evidence. This chapter aims to fill the gap in the existing literature and examines the role of the CCC in the legislative process and its relationship towards the Czech parliament. The chapter combines both quantitative analysis, building on a dataset produced by the JUDICON project, and qualitative assessment of the most important constitutional review cases delivered between 1993 and 2015. The recent development, undue political pressure and interference with domestic courts sweeping through many CEE countries brings the question of the relationship between constitutional courts and parliaments to the forefront of academic attention. The chapter implements an innovative methodology on measuring the strength of judicial decisions and constrain they exercise on the legislator in the Czech settings. It shows that the CCC built its name despite leaving a wide space for consideration to the legislator, which, in return, might helped him prevent more serious political inferences and undue pressure. |