The evolution of public authorities' approach to the right to information over the last three decades - the view of Brno and Strasbourg
Abstract
The right to information is one of the important political rights sensu largo which can be confirmed by the fact that it is enshrined in Article 17 of the (Czech) Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. The current study reflects on how the approach to the conception of the information obligation of public authorities has changed over the last three decades in the Czech Republic, as well as in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR").
The first general part of the contribution addresses the issue of regulation/recognition of the obligation to provide information in Czech law and in the Convention. It is shown that the approach of the Czech legislator to potential applicants requesting the information has been and remains much friendlier than the one of the ECtHR.
The second part of the manuscript provides the comparison of the methods applied by the Czech Constitutional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court on the one hand and the ECtHR on the other hand. It is focused on the three key areas: 1) who is the obliged subject; 2) who has active legitimacy to request for the information; and 3) what is the scope and the limits of the right to information.
The authors come to conclusions that the Czech and the Strasbourg systems are strongly interconnected, nonetheless the interpretation of the case-law of ECtHR by Czech judges is not always correct. Additionally, notwithstanding the limited application of the right to information under Article 10 of the Convention, the ECtHR is open to recognise the right at issue, when it is envisaged in the national legislation, considering simultaneously the domestic standards.