On 23 July 2020 President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic Dr. Pavel Rychetský welcomed the recently appointed President of the Constitutional Court of Austria Prof. Christoph Grabenwarter to a bilateral meeting in Brno. Prof. Grabenwarter has been a Justice of the Constitutional Court of Austria since 2005. In February 2018 he was appointed the Vice-President and in February 2020 the President of the Court. In his capacity of President, it was his first official visit to the Czech Republic and the first one whatsoever to the seat of the Constitutional Court. For this reason, the meeting also included the tour of the Constitutional Court Building. 

The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic and its Austrian counterpart maintains very close and friendly relations. It has been so not only because of their geographical proximity and common historical legacy but also because of their part in the field of international judicial cooperation. The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic currently presides over the Conference of European Constitutional Courts which was established in Dubrovnik in 1972 and nowadays brings together representatives of forty-one European constitutional courts or equivalent institutions conducting a constitutional review. The Constitutional Court of Austria headed the organization in 2011-2014. 

Pavel Dvořák
Head of External Relations and Protocol Department