Abstract
This article is devoted to the issue of identification of persons vis-a-vis the administrative authorities and deals with the question of which documents meet the requirements set by the Czech Administrative Code for IDs, and in what other way can the identity of persons in question be verified. The author leans towards an extensive (in favorem) interpretation of the provisions of Sec. 36 Para. 5 of the Czech Administrative Code, allowing proof of identity also by means of a document that does not contain some of the basic data, provided that such absence is compensated by other data enabling the unequivocal identification of the person.
In this context, the author condemns the practice of some administrative authorities not accepting, for instance, lawyer's ID cards, as such act violates the special nature of legal representation and, paradoxically, even makes identification more difficult and thus defeats the purpose of the legislation. The author further points out that identity verification based on a card is not mandatory according to the law, and therefore the administrative authority can also carry out the identification by means of electronic systems, where it nonetheless seems appropriate to apply multi-factor authentication.