The first cases to reopen proceedings before the Constitutional Court following judgements by the European Court of Human Rights

The article deals with the first two cases of reopening of proceedings decided before the Czech Constitutional Court in its history. Both cases concern the petitions for rehearing of a proceeding and such reopened proceedings pursuant to §§ 119 to 119b Constitutional Court Act 1993 (as amended in 2004). According to the Art. 119 of that Act a petition for rehearing may be submitted against such decision of the Constitutional Court under the conditions set down in this Act, if the Constitutional Court have decided in a criminal (not civil case) matter in which an international court (in these cases the European Court of Human Rights - see Application no. 64935/01 and Requête no 1993/02) found that, as the result of the encroachment of a public authority, a human right or fundamental freedom was infringed in conflict with an international treaty (in both cases was held a that there has been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). The author analyses practical problems that are connected with the entirely new proceedings and tries to find explanation for the decisions passed by the Constitutional Court on the background of the professional literature.