The lawyers Irena Schejbalová and Monika Novotná or the vice president of the Supreme Court in Prague Robert Fremr could head to the Constitutional Court. According to the website of the Czech Justice, they were heard last week by President Petr Pavel’s Commission for the Selection of Constitutional Judges.
The Constitutional Court is in for a major change this year, the mandate of a total of seven constitutional judges, including the president of the court, Pavel Rychetský, will expire. This happened to Milada Tomková, Jan Filip and Jaroslav Fenyk last week. The President proposed to the Senate judges Josef Baxa and Daniela Zemanová and constitutional lawyer Jan Wintra to replace them.
When choosing other nominees, Pavel wants to base himself on the proposals of more than twenty legal institutions that have been approached. The proposed names will again be assessed by a seven-member consultation panel headed by constitutional lawyer Jan Kysela.
“On May 3, I was interviewed by an expert panel for the selection of constitutional judges. It was an expert opinion interview. The discussion was very fair and pleasant. The public will undoubtedly be informed about the results by the president’s office,” Schejbalová told the server. The lawyer leads the ČAK branch in Brno as its director, and is also the vice-president of the chamber’s control board. Among other things, he deals with the issue of free legal aid.
According to information from the Czech judiciary, however, the commission has already given preference to Monica Novotná. In 2019, she became the first woman in the history of the Czech legal profession to become the vice-president of ČAK. He specializes in tax and administrative law.
After the expiration of the mandate of three judges last week, their number dropped from 15 to 12. However, according to the spokeswoman of the Court of Justice, Kamila Abbasi, this does not threaten the operation of the court. It remains a quorum. However, the “wheel” of allocating individual complaints and motions will speed up, so other judges will temporarily have more work.
A constitutional judge can become a Czech citizen of integrity who is at least 40 years old, has a university degree in law and has been active in a legal profession for at least ten years – so he does not have to be a judge of a general court.
