The aim of this thesis is the development of the protection of human rights in the European Union, the analysis of the current state and coherence in the context of the legal regulations of the Czech Republic, including the enforcement of human rights in connection withthe judgements.

1 Political Role of Courts and Judges from a European and Comparative Perspective Zuzana Vikarská The submitted dissertation examines European apex courts (i.e. the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights) and aims to answer the research question whether these judicial institutions are political and, if so, in what sense. The author puts forward five perspectives from which the political role of courts and judges can be analysed. The first dimension perceives judges as human beings who are influenced not only by legal rules but also by various non-legal influences, including political ones. In the first dimension, the notion of politics therefore stands in contrast to a certain idea of legal purity and separation of law from politics. This first dimension covers various jurisprudential perspectives on judicial decision-making, but also issues such as transparency of judicial institutions or the quality of judicial reasoning. The second dimension looks at the nomination procedures that lead to judicial appointments at the European apex courts. In this case, politics means the participation of political actors in the process of selecting candidates for the judicial functions. In this meaning, the notion of politics stands in opposition to the notion of expertise. The...

Hereby submitted thesis {\clqq}EC law contravened by member state`` describes duties of member states regarding the harmonization of national rules of law to the communitary one. Thesis shows consequences of correct or incorrect conversion of superordinated communitary rules of law to national legal systems using concrete cases (examples) from Czech legal practice.

La consécration du droit à l'autodétermination par la Cour européenne des droits de l'Homme, à l'occasion de deux arrêts figurant désormais au sein des« grands arrêts» de cette juridiction, appelait, en elle-même, une étude Elle l'appelait d'autant plus que le droit à l'autodétermination semble à même de permettre un véritable renouvellement du droit français quant à l'appréhension juridique des pouvoirs de la personne sur son corps. En l'état actuel du droit interne, ces pouvoirs ne sont pas clairement identifiés, de sorte que la frontière entre actes licites et illicites est poreuse, voire insaisissable. Utile, en sus d'être obligatoire, l'intégration du droit à l'autodétermination en droit interne est essentielle: elle permet de régir harmonieusement les pouvoirs de la personne sur son corps. Vérifier cette hypothèse supposait de s'assurer des potentialités du droit à l'autodétermination et d'identifier les lignes directrices de son exercice. À l'étude, le droit à l'autodétermination peut être défini comme le pouvoir d'exiger d'autrui le respect de ses choix effectués dans le cadre de sa vie privée lorsqu'ils sont amenés à se réaliser sur son corps. L'émergence d'un nouveau droit à dans l'ordre juridique implique nécessairement de savoir comment l'exercer, c'est-à-dire de saisir ses contours et ses limites et de s'assurer de sa garantie: sans limite, l'exercice du droit à l'autodétermination serait indéniablement un danger pour le maintien de l'ordre juridique interne; sans garantie, il serait stérile. / No English summary available.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has long been recognized as a major engine behind the European integration project for its role in passing judgments expanding the powers and scope of the European Community, while member states have consistently reacted negatively to judgments limiting their sovereignty or granting the Community new powers. It is this interplay between the Court and member state interests that cause the ECJ to pose a threat to the future of integration. Using a combined framework of neofunctionalism and rational choice new institutionalism, six landmark cases and the events surrounding them are studied, revealing the motivations behind the Court’s and member states’ actions. From the analysis of these cases is created a set of criteria which can be used to predict when the ECJ will make an activist decision broadening the powers of the Community at the expense of the member states as well as when, and how, member states will respond negatively.

The topic of the thesis are CILFIT criterions. These criterions were established by the Court of Justice of the European Union as conditions for application of the acte clair doctrine by national courts of last resort. The conditions determine situations in which such a court does not have an obligation under Article 267/3 to bring a matter before the Court of Justice. First of all, thesis describes the historical circumstances, which gave rise to the CILFIT case as well as the facts of that issue. Then it analyses one by one CILFIT criterions and also current procedure of submitting preliminary questions as a whole. As a part of the analysis, it focuses on the practical application of the abovementioned conditions by the courts of the Member States. It targets purely theoretical ideas too. The thesis, further, identifies certain problematic aspects of the CILFIT conditions. Subsequently, some possible solutions are being suggested and their effectiveness and appropriateness are being examined.

The main objective with the thesis was to analyze institutional change in the European Union pre-and-post financial debt crisis, with particular focus on the roles of the Parliament, the Commission, the Council as well as the Court of Justice. To attain the objective, the thesis intended to answer the subsequent queries; (i) what notable institutional changes were brought in the European Union pre-and-post financial debt crisis; (ii) what role did the Parliament, the Commission, the Council and the Court of Justice play pre-and-post financial debt crisis; were their roles enhanced by the financial debt crisis? In order to attain the objective, the thesis utilized an institutional analysis and development framework. This theoretical framework relied on a qualitative content analysis.  The results of the thesis exhibit that the European Union’s progression route was not free from crises. With the Union’s expansion, more decisions ought to be taken by the four institutional bodies. The role of the European institutional bodies resulted in various institutional changes with the establishment of the Treaty of Lisbon; from having a normative power to encompass an executive one. The Treaty of Lisbon also changed the decisionmaking procedure to an ordinary legislative procedure. Apropos decision-making, the Treaty of Lisbon also enhanced the Council and the Parliament’s role pre-financial debt crisis by making the Parliament and Council equal in the new co-decision procedure. The role of the Council has been dynamic since its formation, while the role of the three other institutions could somewhat vary throughout the pre-financial debt crisis. With regards to institutional change after the financial debt crisis, the results reveal that institutional changes occurred mainly in economic and fiscal policies, for instance strengthening the EMU with the intergovernmental Treaty on Stability and Coordination and Governance. Whilst the Treaty of Lisbon brought more supranationalism in the European Union, the period after the financial debt crisis rather celebrated intergovernmentalism in the Union. The role of the Council was dynamic even post-financial debt crisis, decreasing the role of the Commission in the agenda setting. However, with the introduction of the Six-Pack and the Banking Union, the Commission and the Parliament’s role became evidently enhanced, whilst the Court of Justice, did not play a key role in the financial debt crisis.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans la nouvelle histoire du droit européen en proposant les résultats de recherches biographiques sur les premiers juges, avocats généraux et greffier qui ont fait fonctionner la Cour de Justice de l'Union européenne pendant les vingt premières années de son existence (1952 - 1972). Il s'agit tout d'abord de mettre en lumière les parcours professionnels et personnels des pionniers de la juridiction et des hommes qui ont prononcé certains de ses jugements les plus connus, ceux qui ont lancé le processus de « constitutionnalisation » de l'ordre juridique communautaire. Ensuite, il s'agit d'utiliser les résultats de ces recherches biographiques pour apporter, sur trois points précis, des éléments de réponse à une question qui intéresse depuis deux décennies en particulier les politistes - et de manière plus récente, les historiens: comment cette institution réussit-elle, à partir des années 1960, à autant limiter la souveraineté des Etats membres, en posant notamment le principe de primauté du droit européen, et cela sans semble-t-il être confrontée à de sérieuses résistances de la part des dirigeants des Etats membres ? Cette thèse analyse tout d'abord le processus de nomination des juges et des avocats généraux, afin de savoir si les gouvernements tentent, ou non, via le mécanisme de sélection de mettre un terme à sa jurisprudence audacieuse. Puis, elle étudie les convictions européennes des membres de la Cour et leur vision du rôle qu'ils doivent jouer dans le processus d'intégration. Enfin, elle s'intéresse au réseau politique des hommes de la juridiction européenne et leurs interactions officieuses avec les dirigeants des Etats membres. / This Ph.D. thesis contributes to the new history of European law by proposing the results of in-depth biographical research on the first judges, advocates general and registrar who worked at the European Court of Justice during the first twenty years of its existence (1952 - 1972). Firstly, it sheds new light on the professional and personal trajectories of the Court's pioneers and of those who pronounced some of its most commented judgments, those who laid the foundation of the 'constitutionalization' of the European legal order. Secondly, it leans on the collected biographical data in order to bring to the surface new elements of knowledge on three precise points with regard to a question which political scientists have been interested in for two decades - and which now also historians address: how did the European Court of Justice, from the 1960s onwards, succeed in seriously limiting the Member States' sovereignty, especially by imposing the principle of primacy of European law, without provoking a rebellion by national decision-makers? It first of all analyzes the nomination process of the first judges and advocates general, in order to establish whether governments did, or did not, use the appointment mechanism to curb down ECJ activism. It then studies the members of the Court's views and convictions with regard to European integration and their role in the European Communities. Finally, it looks at the political affiliations of the first members of the Court of Justice and their unofficial interactions with national decision-makers.

The thesis is devoted to the most relevant cases of European Court of Justice in the field of direct taxation and their influence on national tax policies. Different member states are willing to implement the law of European Union at different levels. The thesis evaluate the impact of ECJ cases on national tax systems of France and The Netherlands. It has several parts. First part describes historical milestones in coordination of direct taxation, second part describes the ECJ and its function and structure. Follows the analysis of most important cases. Last part evaluate the impact of cases on French and Dutch tax system.

This thesis bearing the name "The European Convention on Human Rights, Article 8" has the objective to define the right to respect for private and family life through the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. The work is concentrating on the topic of registered partnership, especially upon the question of whether a homosexual pair can be recognized as a family in the sense of Article 8 of European Convention on Human Rights. Further issues discussed are the question of children and their biological parents, whether a child has a right to know his biological parents, and the problem of implementation of Article 8 in the Czech Republic focusing on the question of problems in implementation of the right to respect for private life and for family life. The first two chapters are aimed at defining the pertinent terms and outlining the historical development of this area of law. Main part of the work are the last two chapters, which are concentrating on the above mentioned issues through the interpretation of selected relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. This interpretation of the jurisprudence has resulted in answers on the set questions, with respect to the fact that it is a current interpretation of the Convention by the Court. The main finding is the necessity to realize that the Convention as a living instrument will keep developing according to the development of society, which leads to the results and answers being pertinent only at the time of writing of this work, with the future development being possibly different from current results.