Final Word from Thursday, May 9, 2024

The Constitutional Court struck down the passage from the civil code on Tues., effective on June 30 of next year, that requires an operation for a legal sex change. It means that Czechs will have to get used to men who can have babies and women who can donate sperm. The Constitutional Court had ruled under Chief Justice Pavel Rychetský in Sept. 2021 on a related issue, but the Court decided under Chief Justice Josef Baxa that this new ruling doesn't constitute a violation of Constitutional Court case law. Baxa had said soon after he was appointed to head the Court that resisting the temptation to reverse case law is a sign to him of conservative thinking, but he added later with regard to a pension adjustment that the world is changing and that the immutability of our laws is of little use if the system starts to become unmanageable. We dubbed it the Baxa Doctrine, and it has now been deployed for the second time. When Baxa wants to reverse case law, a pretext can be found for doing so. [ Czech Republic precedent ]