Diskuse při přípravě Ústavy České republiky

The topic of JUDr. Věra Jirásková, CSc., is “Discussions on Preparation of Constitution of the Czech Republic”. She deals with the process of creating the Constitution of the Czech Republic in the context of the split of the Czechoslovak Republic. The atmosphere after the election in June 1992 was characterized by legal nihilism. Without wide discussions and consideration of alternatives, clear political aims were set and only afterwards a search for legal reasoning and legal form started. In the rather sensitive ideological atmosphere there was not enough understanding for rational arguments. They were often refused as ideological. Also nationalism played negative role by manifesting itself in exclamations such as “Let them go!”. Last but not least, it was a period of hurry and haste resulting in inaccuracy and improvisation. After the election in 1992, when it was clear that the split of the state was fast approaching, two commissions for preparation of the Constitution of the Czech Republic were set up – a governmental one (presided over by Klaus), the other in the Czech Nation Council (presided over by Uhde). The second commission was oriented to formulating the aims and principles, the first one worked out its own bill of the fundamental law for the government. The legislative process was completed on December 16, 1992 at the plenary session of the Czech National Council, where the constitution was approved by large majority of votes. The variance in opinions of relevant political subjects resulted in disputes concerning the content of Czech constitution and expression of Czech statehood in it. The author finds two features important for the future form of Czech statehood: a) recognition of legacy of Czechoslovak and Czech statehood; b) discussions concerning two principles of constitutional state: democracy and social-market economy. Neither state in the form of republic nor its laic nature have ever been challenged. Following the tradition of Czechoslovak statehood is much clearly seen in understanding of Czech statehood than in the understanding of Slovak statehood. As far as democracy is concerned, a dispute continues whether, and how much, a representative democracy can be combined with direct democracy. The latter principle (social-market economy) is being connected with the idealization of market as the most democratic human invention of all times. However, the market should not be a place forbidden for law, state, ethics and of course labour and social legislation. A question emerges: how to ensure all that that in fact cannot be ensured by the market, i.e. education, culture, healthcare.