Procedure of Preventive Review of the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Republic

In 2001, the Czech Republic adopted the so-called Euro-amendment to the Constitution of the Czech Republic (Constitutional Act No. 395/2001 Sb.),1 introducing a number of significant changes in the constitutional order from the points of view of international and domestic law (Art. 1 para. 2 and Art. 10 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic – hereinafter “the Constitution”). At the same time, the amendment provided for the possibility of transferring some of the powers of state authorities to international organizations or institutions (cf. Article 10a para. 1), thereby setting the constitutional prerequisites for the accession of the country to the European Union. It also vested the Constitutional Court with the power of preventive review of the constitutionality of international treaties, which had previously not been regulated in the Czech legal system. 2 In this connection, a new part II (Art. s 71a-71e) was included in Act No. 182/1993 Sb. on the Constitutional Court on the basis of its amendment No. 48/2002 Sb.,3 which regulated the procedure to be followed by the Constitutional Court during its preventive review.