Human Rights – Real of Just Formal Rights? Example of the (Un)Constitutionality of Data Retention in the Czech Republic Cover Image

Žmogaus teisės – realios ar tik formalios? Duomenų saugojimo (anti)konstitucingumo pavyzdys Čekijos Respublikoje
Human Rights – Real of Just Formal Rights? Example of the (Un)Constitutionality of Data Retention in the Czech Republic

Author(s): Jan Kudrna
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: Mykolas Romeris University
Keywords: data retention; Czech Republic; Constitutional Court; Parliament; government; privacy; right to privacy; human rights; European Union; directive

Summary/Abstract: Approximately twenty years after it was necessary to fight for human rights, the time came when it was necessary to do it again. Or to begin at the very least to protect them very strongly and thoroughly in a preventive manner. Other methods and means will revert to time when human rights were formally anchored but their material establishment is not yet realized, or not at least to the extent expected corresponding to their real substance. The beginning of the 90’s in Central and Eastern Europe was a success in that human rights began to be looked on as natural, forming the basis of democratic State respecting the rule of law. Today we are increasingly more often encountering the reality that human rights, on the contrary, to the same extent that they have been able to be established, they are losing in value. The biggest danger consists in the fact that limiting of human rights often is attended by silence, without wider public discussion or deliberations. The lack of qualified discussion during the limiting of human rights by way of laws and implementing regulations is however a systemic problem. Correction of its results can be often very complex and doing away with the causes a long term effort. It is dependent on the quality of representative democracy and of the civil society as well. This article is devoted to problem of implementation of evidence of data accompanying telecommunications traffic, the so-called data retention, and in its development from lack of legal regulation to roughly unconstitutional legal regulation and finally to hope for a reasonably constitutional solution.

  • Issue Year: 19/2012
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 1289-1300
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: English