Journal of the Charles University Law Faculty
Marek Antoš
Case Law of Czech Constitutional Court Concerning Social Rights: Not Necessarily Best, Most Suitable, Most Efficient and Wisest?
Jurisprudence 6/2014 Section: Treatise Page: 3-14
Keywords: social rights, rationality test, proportionality test, extreme disproportionality test, Czech Constitutional Court
Abstract: The first part of the paper analyses case-law of the Czech Constitutional Court concerning social rights, in particular how the rationality test is applied there. It confirms that the approach of the court is volatile, which is manifested by deviations from the formal structure of the test, arbitrary and unstable definitions of the core (essential content) of the rights and differences in how strict the rationality review requirements are to be. The second part addresses the issue of how to eliminate these problems and asserts that they rather follow from poor design of the test itself than just from a lack of diligence. As a better alternative, therefore, it proposes another test to be used in these cases, and this is the extreme disproportionality test, already used by the court for review of tax legislation.
