The impact of the political question doctrine on decision-making of judges of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic Abstract The thesis deals with the influence of the political question doctrine on decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. It explains the meaning of the political question in the United States, describes what the possible Czech political questions could be and outlines reasons for judicial restraint in the cases lying on the boundary of law and politics. The first part of the thesis briefly presents relations between constitutional law and the part of politics which is closely connected to the constitutional judiciary. This relationship is explained by a phenomenon called the judicialization of politics which describes the growing role of constitutional courts in solving political controversies and policy questions. Moreover, to better understand the impact of the political question doctrine on decision-making of Czech constitutional judges, the second part of the thesis deals with the origin and an establishment of this doctrine in the Supreme Court of the United States, and indicates its future development. The third and fourth part of the thesis focuses on defining the Czech political question, its limits and also on its application by the Constitutional Court...

Section 34 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 outlines the scope of judicial authority as encompassing the resolution of any dispute that can be resolved by the application of law. The courts in South Africa have developed several justiciability canons that restrain when courts may adjudicate disputes, such as standing, mootness, ripeness, and the prevention of advisory opinions. These justiciability canons emanate from constitutional considerations such as respect for separation of powers and the proper role and scope of judicial review in a constitutional democracy. This study focuses on another justiciability canon - the political question doctrine. This doctrine arises from the principle of separation of powers and, in the main, provides that certain questions of constitutional law are allocated to the discretion of the elected branches of government for resolution. As a result, such questions are non-justiciable and require the judiciary to abstain from deciding them because not doing so intrudes into the functions of the elected branches of government. The underlying theme is that such questions must find resolution in the political process. Through a comparative lens, the study examines the origins and current application of the political question doctrine in selected countries with a view to obtain lessons therefrom. It examines the origins of the doctrine, by placing particular emphasis on the early application of the doctrine by the US Supreme Court. The study also examines the modern application of the doctrine in the constitutional jurisprudence of several countries, including Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria. It advances the view that while the doctrine exists in the South African jurisprudence, the Constitutional Court should articulate and develop it into a clear doctrine taking into account lessons from those countries. The study offers some recommendations in this regard. The study submits that the political question doctrine is an appropriate legal mechanism through which the South African judiciary can address the recent problem of the proliferation of cases brought to the courts that raise non-justiciable political questions and threaten to delegitimize the role of the courts in a democracy. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D.

Judicial self-restraint in the judicature of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic Abstract The thesis deals with the role of the judicial self-restraint in the judicature of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. Besides the theoretical definitions is the pivotal part of the thesis practical section that is focused on the analysis of pre-selected decisions of the Constitutional Court with respect to the judicial self-restraint. The first chapter contains definition of the theory of separation of powers as basis for the judicial self-restraint and its subcategories. Part of this chapter is oriented at the judicial power itself, which is crucial for the thesis. The second chapter provides definitions of key concepts - principal of judicial self-restraint, priority of the constitutionally conformal interpretation, political question doctrine and judicial activism, as it is called. These concepts are defined from the points of view of the angloamerican legal system as well as czech legal system. In the second chapter are also stated possible factors that may lead to the judicial activism and to the judiciary state, as it is called. The chapter afterwards describes the judicial interpretation and application of law in the context of the judicial self-restraint and provides relevant historical...