In the Czech Republic, the constitution is not formed by one document, a constitutional act, rather it comprises several enactments, constitutional acts. According to Art. 9 para. 1 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic of 16 December 1993, the Constitution (in the broad sense) may be supplemented or amended only by constitutional acts. A constitutional act in the formal sense is an act which has been designated and is later promulgated as “constitutional” and which is approved by both chambers of the Parliament, by a qualified majority of three-fifths of all Deputies and a qualified majority of three-fifths of all Senators present (Art. 39 para. 4 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic).
Apart from the Constitution of the Czech Republic proper, promulgated as Constitutional Act No. 1/1993 Sb., the constitution in the broader sense comprises the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, adopted in the period of the Federation as Constitutional Act No. 23/1991 Sb., then newly promulgated in the Czech Republic as No. 2/1993 Sb.
The further components of the Czech constitution are:
- Constitutional Act No. 347/1997 Sb., on the Creation of Higher Territorial Self-Governing Units;
- Constitutional Act No. 110/1998 Sb., on the Security of the Czech Republic;
- Constitutional Act No. 515/2002 Sb., on the Referendum on the Czech Republic's Accession to the European Union;
- the constitutional acts relating to the break up of Czechoslovakia and the founding of the Czech Republic as a new successor state (Constitutional Act No. 4/1993 Sb., on Measures connected with the Dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, Constitutional Act No. 29/1993 Sb., on certain Additional Measures connected with the Dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic);
- and the constitutional acts defining the Czech Republic‘s borders with neighboring states.
In the Czech Republic’s brief history, the Parliament has also, in reaction to a governmental crisis that arose, adopted Constitutional Act No. 69/1998 Sb., on the Shortening of the Electoral Term of the Assembly of Deputies, which was, in a way, an extraordinary constitutional act in the sense that it was intended to apply solely for that situation only. Another act of this type, the Constitutional Act no. 195/2009 Sb., on Shortening the Fifth Term of Office of the Chamber of Deputies, was annulled by the Constitutional Court - see the judgment Pl. ÚS 27/09 of 10 September 2009 and the press release [PDF, 35,14 kB].
For the complex of constitutional acts, that is, for the designation of the constitution in the broader sense, Art. 3 and Art. 112 para. 1 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic introduce the comprehensive term, „constitutional order of the Czech Republic“, and define what its components are.