History
The basic outlines of Czech law originate from the age of enlightened absolutism, from 19th century Civil Code of the Austrian Empire (famous ABGB).
These very thorough and thick books are a prime example of the Napoleonic, byzantine system known as Continental (or civil) law tradition and of course leave no space for common law. The main source of the law is thus legislature.
During major regime changes (the creation of sovereign and democratic state in 1918, German occupation, communist takeover, Russian occupation, revolution in 1989 – good few for such a small nation in such a short period), the way chosen was always hanging onto legal continuity and gradual adaptation and amendments of statutes to the new situation.
The procedure is inquisitorial, based on the what the Romans did, although, as in most of continental Europe, it is now being more and more contaminated (in a good way) by the adversarial system. Still there is no place for jury. The judge (or panel of judges) is the main actor of the proceedings.
Read more about this topic: Czech Law
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)