Abstract
The adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (hereinafter "the Charter") by the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly on 9 January 1991 was perceived as a significant breakthrough in the protection of human rights and freedoms. This was due not only to the place it occupied in the mechanisms of protection and the legal instruments it offered for the presumed real enforceability of rights and freedoms, but also to the conception of the relationship between the individual and the State on which it was based. The return to the legacy of natural law philosophical theory was not only a recognition of the traditions of European liberalism, but also a subscription to contemporary international systems of legal protection. In the Czechoslovak environment, the Charter undeniably had a political charge in the way its proclamations and interpretations were meant to symbolize the break in the conception and protection of rights and freedoms between "what was" and "what ought to be".
However, nothing ended with the adoption and promulgation of the Charter. In its case, too, something ends and something else begins. A normative text is the result of the ideas of its creators, but these ideas and expectations are rarely fully realised. Like everything in this world, the Charter began to age the moment it was adopted. While the text of the legislation is influenced by its creators, the application is in the hands of other people.
The Charter has begun to influence society, but at the same time society has begun to influence the Charter. Economic, technological, ecological and political transformations, which are increasingly global in nature, are playing an important role. Under these influences, ideas about the Charter's impact and expectations of it have certainly diverged in many ways, not only from the ideas of its creators, but also from the expectations of Czechoslovak society in 1991.
Thirty years is a long time. It is a time of generational change, which we are now also witnessing. Our conference will focus on this aspect of the Charter.
The Charter can be subjected to a critical analysis that reflects the social, philosophical, political and legal changes that have naturally occurred. But reflection is not just a glimpse into the history of the present. It is meaningful insofar as it opens up a passage between almost forgotten chapters of history and today's world of 'fluid values', insofar as it makes it possible to weave together the broken threads of socially divided communities, and insofar as it offers, even today, realistic starting points for redressing the unjust fate of individuals, as well as of disadvantaged social classes and groups.
As organizers, we are not concerned to describe purely the circumstances and reasons for the adoption of the Charter. These are in principle well known. Nor is it our aim to describe actual landmark cases. Our interest is that each speaker in his or her contribution should try to reflect on this, if possible, and mention what is different now than 30 years ago. Where the Charter has moved on, or where there has been no change. Among other things, we as organizers are also concerned with capturing trends. Including an assessment of whether all trends are consistent with the original ideas of the Charter's creators.
At the time of its creation, the Charter was perceived, among other things, as the legal basis of the highest legal force for emphasizing the personal autonomy of the individual, for reducing the role of the state in defining the space of freedom, for differentiating the system of protection of rights according to their generic qualification, for strengthening the role of courts in the system of protection of rights, whose judges were no longer to be mere "judicial officers in robes" but responsible personalities "with human feeling and conscience". In this sense, the Charter certainly fulfilled many expectations, not only as a document of constitutional legal significance, but also as a document with an undeniably strong moral and humanistic commitment.
The invitation to reflect on the 30th anniversary of the Charter's adoption is an invitation to reflect on its significance not only today but also in the decades to come.