Constitutional Law & State Law (e-books)

E-book

Jana Šutajová

From January 1, 1969, the Constitutional Act on the Status of Nationalities in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) and the Constitutional Act on the Federation came into effect. The Constitutional Act on the Status of Nationalities represented at least a formal significant step forward in the legal regulation of minority rights. However, this law was intended to serve as a foundation for further legal adjustments. It was declared that additional steps and negotiations for the adoption of implementing regulations would follow and that further laws would be enacted at both the federal and national levels. Nevertheless, no additional law or government regulation related to the constitutional act on the status of nationalities in the ČSSR was ever issued.

During the normalization period, issues concerning further legislation related to national minorities were not addressed. However, in the brief period following the adoption of the constitutional act in 1968 until the end of 1969, some institutions attempted to prepare and promote such legal norms. One of these institutions was the Government Council of the Slovak Socialist Republic (SSR) for Nationalities (hereafter referred to as the Council or the Government Council for Nationalities). The monograph provides an insight into the development of additional legal norms arising from the constitutional act on the status of nationalities in the Slovak Socialist Republic, prepared by the Government Council of SSR for Nationalities. This council was one of the institutions established in Slovakia after the formation of the Czechoslovak federation and dealt with nationality issues.

In addressing further legal norms stemming from the constitutional act on nationalities in ČSSR, it was necessary to consider prior developments. Therefore, the first part of the monograph examines the status of minorities in Czechoslovakia before adopting the constitutional act, activities of nationalities preceding its adoption, and its enactment itself. Subsequent sections focus on institutional changes in SSR following federalization, the establishment of the Government Council of SSR for Nationalities, and specific actions taken by this Council and its expert bodies in drafting proposals for laws concerning nationalities in the Slovak Socialist Republic.

The motivation for writing this monograph stemmed from the fact that this topic has so far received attention only in a few studies in Slovakia, which primarily focused on the Hungarian minority during either the Prague Spring or normalization periods.

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Marcel Dolobáč - Ľuboš Dobrovič (eds.)

Reviewed Proceedings of Contributions from a Scientific Conference

This reviewed collection of contributions from the scientific e-conference Legal Language in Application Practice, held from December 3 to 21, 2018, presents various academic contributions.

Legal language, as expressed in legal norms, is specific and should ideally be unambiguous, concise, and resistant to multiple interpretations. Is this an ideal world that does not exist but is worth striving for? Interpretative challenges and ambiguities in legal language and terminology (especially in the Labour Code) led the Department of Labour Law and Social Security Law at UPJŠ in Košice to undertake the VEGA grant project No. 1/0526/17 titled Linguistic and Sanction Mechanisms in the Creation and Operation of Labour Law Norms.

As part of this grant project, the department organized an e-conference open not only to labor law specialists but also to experts from other legal fields. Unsurprisingly, interpretative issues extend beyond labor law. The contributions in this collection are thus somewhat interdisciplinary, though with a focus on labor law. We hope this collection serves as an introduction to broader research and deeper study of legal language by experts beyond legal theory. Additionally, we trust these contributions will inspire you, the readers.

Authors

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Ján Klučka(ed.)

Collection of Papers from the International Scientific Conference Held on May 29–30, 2014 at the Faculty of Law, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

In the first half of this year, a scientific conference entitled “10 Years in the EU: Relations, Questions, Issues” was held in Košice, and the contributions from this event constitute the content of the present collection bearing the same name.

The aim of the organizers—namely, the Slovak Association of European Law, the Representation of the European Commission in the Slovak Republic, and the Institute of European Law together with the Department of International Law of the Faculty of Law at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University—was not only (even if loosely) to follow up on the previous 2009 conference “Community Law in Slovakia – Five Years ‘After’”, but, after another five years, to continue its main objective: to provide participants from both the academic and non-academic community with a space for further analysis and exchange of views on legal issues related to the membership of the Slovak Republic in the European Union and various current issues of the Union’s legal order.

From this perspective, a shift in the overall focus of the conference contributions in 2009 and 2014 can be observed. While the contributions from the first conference focused primarily on various aspects of the application of Union law in the Slovak legal system and related application problems, especially before courts and other authorities, the basic orientation of the contributions from the second conference is already different. The present collection also confirms that the contributions focus primarily on current issues of the European legal order and on certain aspects of the Union’s external policy, while the relationship of Union law to the Slovak legal system is no longer given primary attention.

Several contributions focus on areas characterized by a certain overlap or “cohabitation” of Union law with public international law, private international law, or, more broadly, international relations.

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