Yesterday, the Night of Law festival took place in nine cities across the Czech Republic. The purpose of the event is to introduce the legal world and related topics to the general public. It does so through a variety of traditional and non-traditional formats, such as lectures, talks, guided tours, discussions, theatrical performances, mock trials, and more. The March date of the Night of Law is linked to 6 March 1920, the day the Constitutional Charter of the Czechoslovak Republic came into effect. 

As in previous years, the Constitutional Court participated in the festival. It offered visitors a rich programme composed of three guided tours, during which visitors could explore the building whose history has been closely tied to the protection of constitutionality for the past thirty-five years. The tour, led by Constitutional Court staff, generally followed two themes. The first focused on the building itself, its architecture, and history. The so-called New Provincial House, built in the 1870s as the seat of the Moravian Land Diet, is one of the most important and remarkable buildings in Brno and in Moravia as a whole. The second line of commentary followed the day-to-day operations of the Constitutional Court. Visitors were shown the courtroom where the Constitutional Court pronounces its senate judgments, the Assembly Hall, where, in our day, pronouncements of Constitutional Court Plenary judgments and public oral hearings are conducted, and the recently renovated Grand Council Chamber, dominated by the Constitution of the Czech Republic itself.

The highlight of the program at the Constitutional Court was a discussion with Constitutional Court Justice Jiří Přibáň and hosted by Secretary General of the Constitutional Court Vlastimil Göttinger. Together with them, almost eighty attendees reflected on whether the Constitution needs legal philosophy. The discussion covered imaginary journeys beyond textualism, the search for the meaning of the Constitution, and the eternal tension between law, morality, and politics.

Pavel Dvořák
Head of External Relations and Protocol Department

© Photos: Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, Jiřina Rittichová