Every year the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic organises an international conference called "Constitutional Days". This year's event, held on 19-20 September, was the twelfth in a row, and its theme was the judicial and other protection of political rights.

At the "Constitutional Days", organised in cooperation with the Faculty of Law of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, the President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic is a traditional guest. This year was no different. Josef Baxa gladly accepted the invitation to participate, since it was – symbolically – his first foreign trip as President of the Constitutional Court. Together with his counterpart Ivan Fiačan, he opened the conference and listened to a number of interesting presentations.

Vojtěch Šimíček, Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, was also invited to deliver a speech at the event. He talked about the Czech experience in the protection of political rights, with particular emphasis on the right of assembly, and described the genesis of approaches to the right of assembly, from its strict protection to the defence against abuse.

Once the conference ended, the two Presidents took time for a bilateral meeting, during which they highlighted the extraordinary level of relations between the two courts and agreed on continuing the close cooperation in the upcoming period. Josef Baxa also thanked for the very warm welcome, which made his first trip abroad both professionally as well as personally successful.

Vlastimil Göttinger
General Secretary