Czech Republic 2006–2008: On President, Judges and the Lisbon Treaty

Abstract

The President of the Czech Republic is vested, by the Constitution of the Czech Republic, with an impressive catalogue of competencies, both in the domestic domain and in the formulation of the foreign policy of the Czech Republic. Several of these powers can be exercised autonomously by the President; the rest of the catalogue can be exercised only with the cooperation (approval) of the government. The Czech political life already identified several constitutional gaps that had to be filled by constitutional conventions and case law of the Constitutional Court. The presidency of Václav Havel (1993–2003) witnessed, among others, constitutional disputes on the constitutionality of the lustration act, the electoral act, and the appointment procedure of the governor of the Czech National Bank, whose results had significant impact on the political system of the Czech Republic. The presidency of Václav Klaus (2003 – present) brought forward another set of constitutional controversies, and this article contains an analysis of three constitutional issues recently decided by the Czech judiciary – review of the constitutionality of the Lisbon Treaty, the constitutional framework of the appointment of new judges ( Langer case), and the constitutional limits for removal of the judicial functionaries by the executive (Brožová case).