Origins, functioning and decision-making of the Constitutional Court of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic.

Abstract

This article deals with a short but relatively significant episode in the development of constitutional law on the territory of the Slovak Republic through an analysis of the practical reintroduction of the constitutional judiciary within the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (CSFR). In his contribution, the author details the circumstances of establishing the Constitutional Court of the CSFR, highlighting the role played by the President of the CSFR, Václav Havel, in its creation. He then analyses the legal foundations on which the Constitutional Court of the CSFR was built, including an overview of its powers, the constitutional status of its judges, and the specific staffing of the court. He also briefly discusses the methods of decision-making of the Constitutional Court of the CSFR and presents its most important decisions, namely the resolution on the „Commission of Inquiry to investigate the events of November 17, 1989 in Prague“, the ruling on the question of totalitarian ideologies threatening the democratic order of the state, and the ruling on the legitimacy of lustrations in a democratic state governed by the rule of law. Although the practical functioning of the Constitutional Court of the CSFR did last only for ten months (as it ceased to exist together with the common state of Czechs and Slovaks on December 31, 1992), despite the passage of time, several of its ideas and decisions have retained their then persuasiveness and topicality to this day.