Czech Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
The Centre is an independent academic institution monitoring human rights developments both domestically and worldwide, issuing a monthly Bulletin, as well as organizing conferences.
The Center's members Hubert Smekal and Ladislav Vyhnánek published an article in the prestigious journal Cambridge University's European Constitutional Law Review which deals with the Czech Constitutional Court's judgment on the 5% threshold in the 2014 European Parliament elections. The article is available here.
Hubert Smekal, a member of the Centre, will be delivering a lecture next week at the Challenges of Europe course, organized by the Utrecht University in the Croatian Dubrivnik. For more information on the course, follow the link.
Photo: Flo, CC BY-SA 3.0
As the summer approaches, for those who do not want to spend it by the sea we bring an up-to-date list of summer schools devoted to studying human rights, democratisation and much more. The selection is diverse enough for everyone to find his or her own favourite. Do not hesitate – the deadlines of most of the schools are approaching quickly!
You can find the list in the Research –> Summer Schools section, or you can simply click here.
Photo: William Simpson, public domain
Dear readers, we are proud to bring to you a new issue of the Czech Republic Human Rights Review. In this issue, you might find articles dedicated to moving cases of segregated education of Roma children in both Czech Republic and Slovakia and the polemic on whether it is necessary to vote on the Church Restitutions in the Referendum. You can also read about recent jurisprudence on controversial Solar Tax that was introduced by the Czech legislator to relieve the abrupt growth of solar power stations and on the next step in the Kinsky restitution case. You might be also interested into reading on the emergence of new statutory laws on criminalization of grow shops, exploitation of foreign lumberman in the Czech Republic, and last but not least about crossroads of business and human rights with respect to Czech arms industry and international politics towards China. We wish you an enjoyable reading.
You can read the issue here.
This year, as well as the last year, the Cetre had the honor to organize the national roud of the prestigious moot court competition Jessup. This year's round dealing with legal dispute between fictional states Agnostica and Reverentia and an annexation of a territory of one of them took part in the courtroom of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic in Brno.
The best speaker prize was awarded to Filip Hloušek and Vuk Djukić, the prize for the best written submission was awarded to the team from the Law Faculty of the Charles University. The absolute winner of this year's round was however the team from the Law Faculty of the Palacký University in Olomouc. This team will be representing the Czech Republic beyond the ocean, at the world finale that will take part in the Washington D. C.
The organisation of the national round would not be possible without the White and Case law firm, with whose financial support made it possible to give the national round form that is appropriate and that the prestigious moot court competition undoubtedly deserves.
Hubert Smekal co-authored with Veronika Hermanová a chapter titled "Implementation of the UN Guiding Principles: The Case of the Czech Republic" that was published in a book Spain and the Implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in the Huygens publishing house.
The chapter can be downloaded here.
In the new special issue of the International Relations (Mezinárodní vztahy), titled "Intitutional an legal aspects of the European integration" is to be found and article by a member of the Center, Hubert Smekal, titled "Pronikání lidských práv do agendy Evropské unie" ("Human rights in the European Union agenda").