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Czech law, often referred to as the legal order of the Czech Republic (právní řád České republiky), is the system of legal rules in force in the Czech Republic, and in the international community it is a member of. Czech legal system belongs to the Germanic branch of continental legal culture (civil law). Major areas of public and private law are divided into branches, among them civil, criminal, administrative, procedural and labour law, and systematically codified.
Written law is the basis of the legal order, and the most important source of law are: legal regulations (acts of parliament, as well as delegated legislation), international treaties (once they have been ratified by the parliament and promulgated), and such findings of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, in which a statute or its part has been nullified as unconstitutional. It is made public by the periodically published Sbírka zákonů, abbreviated Sb. (“Collection of Law”, “Coll.”), and Sbírka mezinárodních smluv, abbreviated Sb. m. s. (“Collection of International Treaties”).
The system of law and justice in the Czech Republic has been in constant development since the 1989 regime change. In 1993, the Constitution of the Czech Republic has been enacted, which postulates the rule of law, outlines the structure and principles of democratic government, and declares human rights and rights of the citizen. Since 2004, the membership in the EU means the priority of European Union law over Czech law in some areas. Recently, a brand new Criminal Code entered into force in 2010, and the Civil Code followed in 2014.
History
In Czech lands, the process of formation of modern legislation dates back to the era of enlightened absolutism, when they were a core part of the Austrian Empire. Reforms of government were to a large extent the work of empress Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II, who participated in creating the first civil code of the country in 1787, called Josephinisches Gesetzbuch. This was a forbearer to the comprehensive codification of civil law in 1811, known as the Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB). ABGB was received in 1918 by Czechoslovakia, among other successor states, but only for Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia), while Slovakia kept the customary law of Hungary. Albeit updated many times, this Austrian law was kept in Czechoslovakia, along with the legal duality, until 1950, when the "Middle Civil Code" was promulgated, soon to be superseded by the civil code of 1964, which will be in force until the "New Civil Code", enacted in 2009, will enter in force in 2014.
Following in the tracks of their enlightenment predecessors, the Constitutio criminalis Josephina of 1707 and the Constitutio criminalis Theresiana of 1768, the most important Czechoslovakian criminal codes were enacted in 1950, 1961 and 2009.
The history of Czechoslovak constitutionality starts with the formation of independent Czechoslovakia out of the ruins of Austria-Hungary. In 1918, the Interim Constitution of Czechoslovakia has been enacted hastily, establishing the republic with its president and temporary parliament. The Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920 succeeded it, inspired by western democratic constitutions, and, controversially, postulating the Czechoslovak nation. This lasted over the First Republic and the second world war. In 1948, the so-called Ninth-of-May Constitution was enacted after the communist coup – interestingly preserving some democratic institutions (human rights, partial division of the three powers, independent judiciary), though the political reality of the country departed from it radically. The 1960 Constitution of Czechoslovakia, influenced by soviet constitutions, is often dubbed the "Socialist Constitution". It changed the name of the country to Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and defined socialist, rather than democratic, character of the state, and introduced the leading role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The 1960 constitution remained in force until 1992, although in 1968 it was substantially modified by the Constitutional Act on the Czechoslovak Federation – this transformed the unitary state into a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic. Further radical modifications were enacted after the regime change of 1989, but they turned out to be short-lived, as in 1992 the Constitution of the Czech Republic has been promulgated after the division of Czechoslovakia, and entered into force in 1993.