Restriction of Legal Capacity in the Slovak Law and Related Court Practice

Abstract

In the first part of the article, the author makes an excursion into history and gives the reader information about the legal capacity of persons in Slovak legal history. This part includes information about feudal law, the first related codification of 1877, the Czechoslovak Civil Code of 1950, and the Czechoslovak Civil Code of 1964. Further on, the author presents the up-to-date effective regulation encompassed in the Slovak Civil Code and in the procedural act, i.e., the Act on Non-Contentious Civil Procedure. At the center of attention is the abolishment of deprivation of legal capacity, introduced in 2016. The author reasons that this abolition was a response to the caselaw of the European Court of Human Rights and to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Inevitable for this article, were the practice and experiences of The Office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities. From the practical point of view, the most important is the last part of the article, where the author lists some examples of good and bad practices of the Slovak Courts concerning legal capacity. The author deems it necessary to pay attention to this important topic. The improvement of the legal position of adults with disabilities definitely contributes to legal certainty and the rule of law in modern societies. Last but not least, it reflects the degree of social forwardness.