The Leges publishing house published a large commentary on the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in mid-September, whose main authors, alongside Zdeněk Kühn, Jan Kratochvíl and David Kosař, also include Jiří Kmec, a counsel at the law firm HAVEL & PARTNERS. The publication was launched by Professor Jiří Malenovský in the presence of the authors at the HAVEL & PARTNERS headquarters in Florentinum in Prague on Wednesday, 5 October.

On over 1,660 pages, the new commentary offers, in particular, a detailed analysis of several thousand decisions primarily issued by the Constitutional Court on individual fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter. However, it also contains detailed general discourse on, for example, the history of the adoption of the Charter, its structure and founding principles, the methods of its interpretation and application, and the possibilities of restricting individual rights and freedoms.

The event was attended by a number of personalities from all tiers of the Czech legal environment. Professor Jiří Malenovský, a former judge of the Czechoslovak and Czech Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, officiated at the ceremony.

Jiří Kmec, presented the commentary on behalf of all the authors, whose total number at the end of their work on the text had grown to 19 and introduced it to those present: “It took about nine years from the birth of the initial idea to the publication of the commentary, and it taught all those involved – the publishers, the individual authors and their close ones – a lesson in patience for which they all deserve acknowledgement and gratitude. Our main goal was to provide a straightforward analysis of the case law of the Constitutional Court as the primary interpreter of the Charter. We hope that the commentary will become a useful tool for all lawyers, and that it will spark critical discussion on a range of human rights issues.”

According to Professor Malenovský, the publication’s significance is extraordinary. He believes that the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms is of cardinal importance because it makes the state a state and democracy a democracy. The plurality of commentaries on the Charter leads to the search for the highest level of protection, and thus benefits fundamental human rights.