The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms ( cs, Listina základních práv a svobod, sk, Listina základných práv a slobôd) is a document enacted in 1991 by the

Czechoslovak Federative Republic After the Velvet Revolution in Revolutions of 1989, late-1989, Czechoslovakia adopted the official short-lived country name Czech and Slovak Federative Republic ( cz, Česká a Slovenská Federativní Republika, sk, Česká a Slovenská Federat ...

and currently continued as part of the

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

systems of both the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and Slovak Republic.

Differences in the successor states of Czechoslovakia

In the Czech Republic, the document was kept in its entirety as a separate document from the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, but imbued with the same legal standing as the constitution.Full text of Czech Charter
/ref>Constitution of the Czech Republic, Art. 112 It is a part of the Constitutional Code of the Czech Republic – a sum of constitutional laws and other sources of law, explicitly named in the constitution – that possesses the highest level of legal force. In Slovakia, the basic provisions of the Charter were integrated directly into the

Slovak constitution Slovak may refer to: * Something from, related to, or belonging to Slovakia (''Slovenská republika'') * Slovaks, a Western Slavic ethnic group * Slovak language, an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages * Slovak, Arka ...

.Constitution of the Slovak Republic, Art. 5–54
Though these legal provisions articles are substantively the same, there are some differences, such as the Slovak contention that "the privacy of correspondence and secrecy of mailed messages and other written documents and the protection of personal data are guaranteed."Constitution of the Slovak Republic, Art. 22 The inclusion of the goals of the Charter directly into the Slovak constitution means that only the

currently has a "Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms".

Creation of the Czech Constitution

An agreement was signed after the negotiations of the prime ministers

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

and

Vladimír Mečiar Vladimír Mečiar (; born 26 July 1942) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia three times, from 1990 to 1991, from 1992 to 1994 and from 1994 to 1998. He was the leader of the People's Party - Movement for a Democr ...

on in August 1992, that set the date of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia to 31 December 1992. The dissolution was approved by the Parliament in November of the same year. Because of an opposition from the

Civic Democratic Alliance The Civic Democratic Alliance ( cs, Občanská demokratická aliance, ODA) was a conservative-liberal political party in the Czech Republic, active between 1989 (founded shortly after the Velvet revolution) and 2007. The ODA was part of govern ...

(ODA), the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and especially the prime minister

Klaus Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus * Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American base ...

– who described the Charter as "''the weeds of the Constitution''" – the Charter never became a part of the Constitution. The time was running out and the members of the parliament had to reach an agreement on the text of the new Czech Constitution. Because of that a new legal term ''Constitutional Code'' was created, so that the Charter could have a legal authority similar to the constitution without being a part of the constitution.

Viktor Knapp The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

– a distinguished Czech lawyer – called this at the time "''a result of a strange legislative compromise''".

Comparison with the US legislation

The document is somewhat analogous to the

United States Bill of Rights The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections rais ...

, although its provisions tend to be more specific, and imbue its citizens with more and different rights than in

United States constitutional law The constitutional law of the United States is the body of law governing the interpretation and implementation of the United States Constitution. The subject concerns the scope of power of the United States federal government compared to the indi ...

, which by contrast recognizes and protects natural rights rather than grant legal entitlement.

References

{{reflist Constitution of the Czech Republic Government of the Czech Republic Political charters Czechoslovak law Law of the Czech Republic Law of Slovakia National human rights instruments 1991 in law 1991 documents