Development and comparison of the relationship between heads of state and judicial power in Europe
Development and comparison of the relationship between heads of state and judicial power in Europe

Summary/Abstract: We assess the development of the relationship between the institution of the head of state and judicial power as it has developed from the patrimonial state through individual other epochs of the history of monarchical power to the present. The original concentration of all power in the hands of the monarch is gradually changing so that, in the process of revolutions, monarchs leave legislative, executive and judicial powers to the decision-making framework of parliaments and governments. This process takes on a special form in the era of so-called constitutional monarchies at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Special history then concerns the development of the judiciary, when the modern ministries of justice (from the 19th century) and after the Second World War even special bodies such as the Supreme Council of the Judiciary perform important functions precisely in relation to the judiciary in the selection of judges, their appointment and promotion to positions, in matters of a disciplinary nature, etc. Modern systems of a republican nature basically place the function of the president in a position like that of the head of state as in modern constitutional monarchies. Presidents and monarchs therefore, even in relation to the judiciary, mostly remain in the position of the highest body of the state, which confirms the personnel proposals of other bodies of the division of power by means of an appointment decree. Special attention is paid to the character of the relationship examined here in the Czech Republic and its constitutional system.

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