News from the Church Law Society

REVIEW 21 1/2002

From the beginning of March 2002, when the last number of this periodical was issued, our society has participated in these undertakings: On Wednesday, March 20, 2002, the panel discussion on the theme “The Form of Marriage Consent”, in the frame of the cycle “The Effect of Law in Church and Society”, was held. Doc. JUDr. Jiří Rajmund Tretera led this discussion. Two alternatives were compared – the prevailed type of the alternative form of the marriage consent – and the type of an obligatory civil form. Comments were made on the negative consequences of the restoration of the obligatory civil form in the bill of the Civil Code. The obligatory civil form of marriage consent was enacted at the territory of the Czech Lands, for the first and last time, by the Communist regime (in force from January 1, 1950).

Three representatives of our society participated in the Evening of the thirtyyear old members of the Czech Brethren Evangelic Church’s Congregation, Prague 10-Vršovice, and explained the new legal position of churches after the Act No. 3/2002 of Coll. had been issued. On the Wednesday, April 24, 2002, the presentation of two new books about state ecclesiastical law, published at the beginning of 2002, was held after the plenary meeting of the Church Law Society, with great attendance. Doc. ICLic. JUDr. Ignác A. Hrdina introduced the book “State and Churches in the Czech Republic” by Doc. JUDr. Jiří R. Tretera, which was published by Karmelitánské nakladatelství in Kostelní Vydří. Doc. JUDr. Jiří R. Tretera led the discussion on the book “State and Church in the European Union” by Prof. Gerhard Robbers and col. This book was translated by Mgr. Petr Kolář from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, and his wife Markéta Kolářová, and published by the Academia Publishing, Prague. The expert supervisor of this book was Doc. JUDr. Jiří R. Tretera. This presentation was supported by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Prague.

At the plenary meeting of the Church Law Society, Mark E. Chopko, General Counsel of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was admitted as an honourable member to the Church Law Society.

Congratulations!

Pavel Čižinský finished his study at the Law Faculty of Charles University and took his degree on the 19th of March, 2002. On the same day, Michal Heldenburg, old member of the Executive Committee and member of the Editorial Board of the Church Law Review, took his degree. Michal Heldenburg also worked as a student assistant at the Department of Legal History at the Law Faculty of Charles University. Congratulations to other graduated from the Law Faculty of Charles University: Jakub Holeček (Prague), old members of the Executive Committee Adam Furek - our chief webmaster (Prague), Daniel Spratek (Třinec) and Jan Šafránek (Prague). Jan Šafránek worked as a student assistant at the Department of Legal History of the Faculty for many years. He cares for distribution of this periodical. On the 2nd of May, 2002, JUDr. Jan Červenka defended his doctor’s thesis on the theme “Territorial Administration of the Roman Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia (1918–1992)”.

On the 27th of May, 2002, P. ThLic. Damián Němec OP, member of the Executive Committee, defended his doctor’s thesis in canon law and took the degree of Th.D. at the Papal Faculty of Theology in Wrocław. His opponent was Prof. ICDr. Edward Górecki. On the 28th of May, 2002, Terezie Jenisová-Hadravová (Třeboň) and Lukáš Kuboň (Český Těšín) defended their diploma thesis at the Law Faculty of Charles University.

News from the Institute for State Ecclesiastical Law

On Tuesday, April 2, 2002, the representatives of the Institute for State Ecclesiastical Law, Ing. Jana Mindlová, CSc., Doc. JUDr. Jiří R. Tretera, ThLic. Damián Němec and Mgr. Záboj Horák, LL.M. participated in a consultative session on the legal form of church entities at the Monastery of the Knights of the Cross, Prague Old Town. This session was arranged by the Sister of Mercy of Charles of Boromeia. On the following session on the 27th of June 2002, Mgr. Tomáš Zadražil, JUDr. Štěpán Hůlka and Mgr. Jan Šafránek, presented their papers. Other members of the Executive Committee participated in discussions.

(jrt)