ABSTRACT

The chapter explores the judicial treatment of Strasbourg rulings by the Czech Constitutional Court, a new court established in the wake of the 1989 Velvet Revolution. First, at the macro level, it describes the general development of the Constitutional Court’s practice to refer to the ECtHR, and argues that the current positive attitude towards the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) was born from changes in the personnel composition, with a younger generation trained in international law joining the Court, and better availability of resources, literature, and staff. The growing referencing practice also spurred on petitioners and attorneys to rely on Strasbourg case law more frequently. Second, at the meso level, the chapter analyzes the role assigned to references in individual rulings and discusses to what extent the Constitutional Court follows the ECtHR’s jurisprudence. It argues that the Constitutional Court uses ECtHR references frequently, but it is not only a passive receptor of the ECtHR’s rulings. It does not hesitate to further develop principles and rules delivered by the Strasbourg Court in order to institutionalize them in domestic settings. Finally, at the micro level, the chapter discusses European Convention of Human Rights provisions (freedom of expression and effective investigation), which brought the biggest challenge and influenced domestic rules most profoundly.