The Czech Constitutional Court and Non- Justiciability: The Emergence of the Political Question Doctrine?

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The Czech Constitutional Court (‘CC’) is frequently described as a strong and, occasionally, an activist constitutional court. However, a varied range of cases has arisen in which the CC has carried only a limited judicial review or has declined to exercise any judicial review at all. This has been due to the fact that the CC has taken the view those cases are related to political questions which are normally justiciable to only a limited extent or non-justiciable at all. In light of these cases and, also, their justification, related especially to the separation of powers, a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards or the necessity of deference to the political branches, there are strong grounds to argue that a sort of political question doctrine has emerged in the case-law of the CC. Although a recourse to such a doctrine may appear unusual in the context of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, it is believed the doctrine can have an added value in that it can shield the CC from excessive politicization and permit the CC to tailor the extent in which it interferes with both macro- or micro-politics.