Přísedící a laický prvek v justici – Lajsek Vladimír (2020)

The monograph addresses the questions of whether the lay element in justice is still a democratizing factor, whether the constitutional prerequisites for an independent, impartial, and lawful judge are sufficiently met in the case of lay judges, whether democratic or expert legitimacy should prevail, and finally, whether the lay element in Czech judiciary should be preserved. Historical experience in the form of trials with K. H. Borovský and Leopold Hilsner shows us in the first case the advantages of lay participation in judicial decision-making, as they can serve as a correction to state arbitrariness; however, in the second case, we can see how erroneous decisions can occur due to the easy influence of the public. During the communist regime, the function of the lay element in justice as a guarantor of the democracy of the judiciary was abused. The so-called 'judges from the people' served more as a control of court decisions in the interest of the ruling structures. Currently, it is necessary to address primarily the question of whether the independence and impartiality of lay judges are sufficiently guaranteed in the Czech Republic and whether, alongside the right to a lawful judge, there is also a right to a lawful lay judge. The comparative part of the book compares the lay judicial element in Austria and Germany. The publication...