What Czech Judges Can and Cannot Do? Practice of Judicial Disciplinary Authorities in the Czech Republic: Empirical Analyses of All Disciplinary Decisions between 2008 and 2014

Abstract

The article analyzes all judicial disciplinary decisions issued by the disciplinary court in the Czech Republic since 2008, when the reform of the disciplinary court took place. The authors, after introducing the Czech disciplinary system, describe the conduct of the judges, which were found inappropriate by the court. In the second part of the article, they offer an analysis of the cases tried by the disciplinary court, in which the court found no substantial breach of the standards of professional judicial ethics or which were suspended before reaching a decision. In the last part of the article, the authors summarize their findings, offer their interpretation and place their findings in a broader Czech context. The article, thus, offers an overview of the most recent practice of the Czech disciplinary court, which may be used for international comparison with the judicial disciplinary practice in other states.