Administrative Procedure Legislation in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

Abstract The chapter analyses the influence of the Austrian model on administrative procedure in Czechoslovakia. The new republic emerged after the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918. Similar developments—enactment of the code of administrative procedure as government regulation in 1928 were more the continuation of practices and theories than inspiration abroad, despite apparent attention to developments in Austria. Interwar Czechoslovakia also established an administrative judiciary, with the Supreme Administrative Court relying on partial personal continuity and retained expertise. The situation changed significantly after the Second World War. The Czechoslovak Communist regime intentionally abandoned legal traditions when enacting new laws, presented as a new Socialist framework. Despite it, tacit return to tried-and-tested models characterised subsequent decades when the regime embraced ‘Socialist legality’—regarding administrative procedures with the 1967 Code of Administrative Procedure, initially adopted as a parliamentary statute. Nevertheless, admitting or highlighting inspiration by a capitalist country would always be inappropriate. Recognition of national and central European traditions was possible after 1989 thanks to liberalisation and democratisation, as with the 2004 recodified Code of Administrative Procedure.