ABSTRACT
Constitutional protection of human rights in Czech law obeys the principles typical of liberal constitutionalism. The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms guarantees a broad range of fundamental rights which are subject to protection provided by both ordinary courts and the Constitutional Court. When limiting fundamental rights, the Czech constitutional order emphasises the necessity to respect the principle of equality, uphold the essence and purpose of the rights in question, and avoid arbitrariness. During a State of Emergency, the Cabinet should lay down limitations of rights and impose obligations defined in an Act of Parliament (the Crisis Management Act), pursuant to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, in addition to the Crisis Management Act (which was not drafted with emergencies related to contagious diseases in mind), the Cabinet also sought the legal basis for wide-ranging restrictions of fundamental rights and freedoms in other statutory provisions, such as the Public Health Protection Act and, later, the Pandemic Act adopted in 2021. Judicial review led to annulment of some of the adopted measures, in particular due to violation of the principle of equality, lack of reasoning, as well as overstepping the textual limits of Executive competences.
