Journal of the Charles University Law Faculty
Ondřej Kadlec
Author’s affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Masaryk University Brno
Author’s Rejoinder: Unification? Absolutely! But of what, by whom, and how?
Jurisprudence 5/2021 Section: Articles Page: 35-47
Keywords: Grand chamber; extended panel; plenum; case law; apex courts; consistency and coherence; Supreme Court; Supreme Administrative Court; Constitutional Court
Abstract: In this article, the author of the monograph The Role of Grand Chambers in the Decision-Making of Czech Apex Courts (KADLEC, O. Wolters Kluwer, 2019) responds to the essays of commentators included in a symposium devoted to the book. The article reinstates and, in the light of the critique, it clarifies the conceptual framework which the book proposes for capturing and critically reflecting the role of Grand Chambers. Based on the critical points raised by the commentators, it then discusses three fundamental questions: First, in what sense is it possible to characterize Grand Chambers at the Czech and Slovak apex courts as “weak”? Second, why are the Grand Chambers at these courts so weak? And third, what function should the continental apex courts’ Grand Chambers ideally assume?
