Ukrainian Law and the Law of the Czech Republic: An Unexpected Encounter
Ukrainian Law and the Law of the Czech Republic: An Unexpected Encounter

Contributor(s): Jakub Handrlica (Editor), Liliija Serhiichuk (Editor), Vladimír Sharp (Editor)
Subject(s): International Law, International relations/trade, Socio-Economic Research, EU-Legislation, Sociology of Law, Russian war against Ukraine
Published by: ADJURIS – International Academic Publisher
Keywords: Ukrainian Law; Law; Ukraine; Czech Republic; Law of the Czech Republic;
Summary/Abstract: The aggression of the Russian Federation against the territory of Ukraine has so far triggered considerable attention by the scholarship of international public law.1 In this scholarship, implications of the aggression to the obligations, arising from the instruments of international public law have so far been detailly analysed. This publication has no ambition to further analyse these problems, as it has been devoted to another legal dimension of the occurrences, which have followed the aggression against Ukraine. The aim of this publication is to address the question of mutual cross-fertilisation between Ukrainian law and the law of the Czech Republic. Having said this, this publication also aims to contribute to a much broader debate about impacts of the massive influx of persons from Ukraine for public law in Europe.2 Pursuant to the official statistics provided by the European Commission, the Czech Republic has accepted 390 000 refugees from Ukraine so far, making it the third most common European Union destination for Ukrainians fleeing their country, and the country with the highest number of Ukrainian refugees per 100 000 inhabitants.3 Consequently, these refugees further increased the already existing Ukrainian diaspora, which was established after the collapse of the Iron Courtain. The massive influx of Ukrainian citizens into the territory of the Czech Republic in the aftermath of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has caused a radical increase of mutual encounters between the elements, governed by either Ukrainian, or Czech Law. This massive influx of Ukrainians has inter alia caused a vast circulation of various decisions, issued by the authorities of Ukraine. Beside the judicial decisions, a myriad of acts of administrative nature – such as the driving licences, passports, personal identification documents, vaccination certificates – have entered the space, governed by the law of the Czech Republic. These increase of mutual encounters between the two legal regimes has naturally triggered a number of challenges to judicial and administrative practice.5 In the national legislation, many of these challenges were addressed by tailor-made acts, referred to as “Leges Ukrainae”, which provided for regime of a temporary protection, for health and social insurance for displaced persons and for rules on education. At the same time, the mutual relations between the Ukrainian law and the law of the Czech Republic became subject of attention of the legal academy.6 The fact is, however, that another influx of displaced persons from Ukraine to our territory has occurred exactly one hundred years ago. In aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution and subsequent civil war, a large wave of immigration occurred to the then existing Czechoslovakia. Among these immigrants, there were numerous persons from the territory of (todays) Ukraine. To facilitate the education of these displaced persons, the Ukrainian Free University (UFU) was established. While originally situated in Vienna, the UFU moved to Prague in the autumn of 1921. With the prohibition of teaching in the Ukrainian language at the universities in the territory of the Second Polish Republic and the closing of all Ukrainian universities in Ukraine by the Bolshevik government, the Ukrainian Free University in Prague became the sole Ukrainian university in the entire free world.7 Initially envisioned had been three faculties - juridical, philosophical and natural sciences, but the perennial lack of funds did not permit for a separate faculty in the natural sciences. Hence the juridical faculty received the name “Faculty of Jurisprudence and Social Sciences”, and the philosophical faculty was divided into two sections: “Historico-philosophical” and “Natural Sciences.”8 Education and research in juridical sciences has always been one of the key fields of the UFUʼs activities and some of the scientific endeavours are still appreciated by today’s academy of law.9 Lectures in law10 were held at the “Faculty of Jurisprudence and Social Sciences” until the very end of the Second World War. It is highly probable, that some of the legal problems, arising recently from the massive influx of refugees from Ukraine, were already addressed during the academic discussions at the UFU in the 1920s and 1930s. Today, there is no Ukrainian university residing in Prague.11 Consequently, it is a natural task for the Charles University and in particular its Law Faculty to address the issue of mutual encounters between the legal system of the Czech Republic and Ukraine. To address this issue, a round table entitled “Ukrainian Law and the Law of the Czech Republic: An Unexpected Encounter” has been organised under the umbrella of a research project, supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The presentation of the round table can be consulted here: https://www.prf.cuni.cz/en/news/roundtable-ukrainian-law-and-law-czech-republic-unexpected-encounter-was-heldfaculty-law. The round table, which was held at the Law Faculty in Prague on 13th June 2023, was an interdisciplinary one. Academicians and Ph.D. candidates from departments of civil law, international public law, administrative law and health law held their presentations on various aspects of the mutual encounters between the two legal systems. At the same time, both Czech and Ukrainian presenters This publication aims to present the written versions of their presentations to the wider readership. The publication is being divided to three sections, addressing: (1) legal issues, arising from recognition of judicial and administrative decisions between the Czech Republic and Ukraine, (2) legal issues, arising with respect to the temporary protection pursuant to the Council Directive 2001/55/EC12 and the Council Implementing Decision (3) legal issues, arising from national legislation, arising for those, enjoying temporary protection in the territory of the Czech Republic. The publication deals primary with national legal frameworks of the Czech Republic and Ukraine, however, is written in English. The reason behind is twofold: Despite belonging to the large group of Slavonic languages, neither Czech, nor Ukrainian serves today as a toll of mutual communication between academicians from both jurisdictions. Thus, English serves as a lingua franca in the mutual communication and therefore, it was selected as the language of the round table. Secondly, the authors hope the articles published will be of interest also in other jurisdictions, which had to face very similar challenges in the aftermath of the February 2022.14 The authors and editors of this publication hope, the articles will attract the attention of foreign readership and will trigger further comparative research in this field. At last but not least, the authors thank the ADJURIS – International Academic Publisher for the opportunity to publish this result of their research.

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