The topic of the thesis "Participatory rights of the child in case law of the Constitutional Court" is a specific complex of rights guaranteed to the child by the constitutional order of the Czech Republic and international treaties, especially the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The child has been viewed as a particular rights subject only in recent decades when the Constitutional Court rejected the idea of a child being an object of other's decision and granted children the status of a subject and a participant in proceedings. Participatory rights are an important set of children rights and can be summarized as the right to be informed about proceedings, the right to express opinions, the right to be notified about the decision of proceedings. The thesis aims to present children rights of participation from the point of view of constitutional law, to focus on the development of the judiciary of the Constitutional Court, and subsequently to compare it with Czech and foreign literature. The first part of the thesis deals with the theoretical definition of the development of the position of the child from the nineteenth century to the present, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its principles, as well as general participation rights in international and national law. The thesis...

This thesis used case study research methods to examine the role played by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the methods they use to increase public participation in environmental matters. It does this by investigating the process leading up to and following a Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decision, that of MiningWatch Canada v. Canada (Fisheries and Oceans) (2010 SCC 2). Specifically, the strategies and methods used by NGOs in this study and their impact on public participation during and in the aftermath of the decision are examined. The primary research question is: what is the impact of NGOs on participatory politics as seen in the SCC decision, MiningWatch Canada v. Canada? Other research questions examined are: what role have NGOs had in increasing participation in environmental decision-making, and: how do NGOs increase public participation in environmental decision-making? Three main groups of strategies are used by the NGOs: “Legal”, “Challenge or Inform Government”, and “Creating an Emotional Response in an Audience.” Strategies common to all NGOs in this study were: “Increase Knowledge” by “Networking,” “Working with Communities at a Grass Roots Level” and “Publications and Reports”. The argument this thesis presents is that democracy is a dynamic process and various strategies can be used to influence participation in environmental decision-making. Specifically, groups of citizens can form in response to an issue, raise public awareness and encourage legislation and policy changes in the search for social progress; in this case, increase public participation in matters involving the environment. / Graduate / 0398 / 0617 / 0630 / kirstye99@gmail.com