The Constitutional Court is the judicial body responsible for the protection of constitutionality, whose status and competences are enshrined directly in the Constitution of the Czech Republic. The Constitutional Court’s seat is in the city of Brno.

The Constitutional Court does not form a part of the system of ordinary courts. Its function is above all to protect constitutionality, fundamental rights and freedoms arising from the Constitution, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, and further constitutional acts of the Czech Republic, and to guarantee the constitutional character of the exercise of state power. Further competences fall within its cognizance, such as deciding on certain matters relating to electoral law and deciding, in the course of the ratification of international agreements, whether they are in conformity with the the Constitution.

The Constitutional Court comprises fifteen Justices who decide in four three-member panels or in the Plenum. Justices of the Constitutional Court are appointed by the President of the Republic, with the consent of the Senate of the Parliament, for a term of ten years, and the Constitution does not forbid their reappointment. The President of the Republic, by his sole decision, appoints the Constitutional Court‘s Chief Justice and two Deputy Chief Justices from among the Constitutional Court’s Justices.

Any citizen who has a character beyond reproach, is eligible for election to the Senate (i.e., at least 40 years old), has a university legal education, and has been active in any of the legal professions for a minimum of ten years, may become a Justice of the Constitutional Court; thus, she need not have been a career judge of an ordinary court. Just as is the case with judges of ordinary courts, the office of Constitutional Court Justice is incompatible with that of the President of the Republic, a Member of Parliament, or with any other function in public administration; as well as with some other compensated positions or profit-making activities. In addition, a Constitutional Court Justice may not be a member of a political party or a political movement. A Justice assumes the performance of her duties upon taking the oath of office administered by the President of the Republic, as follows: "I pledge upon my honor and conscience that I will protect the inviolability of natural human rights and of the rights of citizens, adhere to constitutional acts, and make decisions according to my best convictions, independently and impartially.”

To ensure Constitutional Court Justices‘ independence from the executive power, they are granted immunity: a Constitutional Court Justice may be criminally prosecuted only with the consent of the Senate and may be detained only if he has been apprehended while committing a criminal act or immediately thereafter. The Chairperson of the Senate must be immediately informed of such detention and, if the Chairperson of the Senate does not, within twenty-four hours, give her consent to hand the detained Constitutional Court Justice over to the competent court, the Constitutional Court Justice must be freed from custody. Should the Senate withhold consent to the criminal prosecution of the Constitutional Court Justice, such criminal prosecution shall be definitively barred.

Nobody may recall a Constitutional Court Justice from office. They can can be removed from office only in the case of a serious disciplinary infraction, in a situation where the Justice holds another office or engages in some other activity which is incompatible with the office of a Constitutional Court Justice, if she violates the prohibition of membership in a political party or political movement, or if she has not taken part in the work of the Court for a period exceeding one year. Such decision is made in a special disciplinary proceeding before the Constitutional Court Plenum, by a qualified majority of nine votes. A Constitutional Court Justice loses her office automatically in the case she has been convicted, in a judgment that has become final, of intentionally committing a criminal offense. Naturally a Justice may resign from office, by means of a statement made either personally to the President of the Republic or in the form of a notarized document addressed to him.

The Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court represents the Constitutional Court externally, performs the Constitutional Court‘s administrative work, calls meetings of the Constitutional Court Plenum and directs the business of meetings. The General Secretary of the Constitutional Court is appointed to perform the Constitutional Court‘s administrative work and is responsible for the operation of the Judicial Department, the Analytic Department, the Library and the Foreign Department and the Registry. In addition to the General Secretary, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court appoints the Director of Court Administration, who manages the Economics and Operations Department.

The Deputy Chief Justices act on the Chief Justice’s behalf in her absence and, with the Plenum’s consent, carry out the long-term performance of those of the Chief Justice’s duties which she assigns to them. Each Constitutional Court Justice is entitled to the assistance of three assistants who are appointed, upon the Justice’s proposal, by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court. An assistant’s continuance in office is bound up with that of the Justice for whom she is appointed. Under the Justice’s direction, her assistants prepare the materials for decision-making, including draft decisions, and may be entrusted by their Justice with the performance of certain procedural tasks, for ex., to dispose of submissions that are not petitions instituting a proceeding or calling upon parties or secondary parties to a proceeding to give their views on some issue or other in a proceeding.

Each petition instituting a proceeding is assigned, according to a key laid down in the Court’s agenda, to one of the Justices, who then acts in her capacity as Justice Rapporteur (she assembles the record for the decision and submits a draft decision; alternatively she may, in designated cases, decide herself to reject the petition on preliminary grounds).

The most important matters which are entrusted to the Constitutional Court are decided by it in its full composition, i.e., in its Plenum. From the matters mentioned above, those are, e.g., petitions proposing the annulment of a statute or other legal enactments, conflicts of competence, constitutional complaints by the Senate against the President of the Republic, proposals to adopt a Plenary position overruling a ruling made by the Constitutional Court in one of its previous judgments, as well as additional matters the decision on which the Plenum has reserved to itself.

Otherwise, the final decision on the overwhelming majority of constitutional complaints and other petitions instituting a proceeding is made by the three-member panels.

The Constitutional Court Plenum has a quorum when at least nine Justices are present. It decides by a majority of votes; however, in order to annul a law, and in certain other cases, a qualified majority of nine votes is required in order for it to adopt a decision.

Constitutional Court decisions are final and may not be appealed.

As far as concerns the form of a decision, the Constitutional Court decides matters on the merits by means of a judgment, and other matters by means of a ruling. The reasoning of a judgment often contains pronouncements on momentous legal issues, and since, according to Art. 89 para. 2 of the Constitution, Constitutional Court decisions are binding on all authorities and persons, the judgments are deemed to be one of the sources of law, and they are treated as precedents.

A Justice who disagrees with the decision adopted has the right to append her separate opinion to the decision. The authority to do so is enjoyed exclusively by Constitutional Court Justices; ordinary court judges are not entitled to do so. The Constitutional Court publishes all of its judgments and selected rulings, including separate opinions, in printed form in its Collection of Judgments and Rulings of the Constitutional Court. The most significant judgments are published also in the official Collection of Laws (Sbírka zákonů). In addition thereto, the Constitutional Court makes all of its decisions available to the public on its internet database, NALUS, found on its web page.