Proportionality means proportionality: Czech Constitutional Court, 2 February 2021, Pl. US 44/17

• Published in: European constitutional law review Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 538 - 552
• Main Authors: Marek Antos, Filip Horak
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Cambridge University Press 01.09.2021
• Subjects: Asylum, Right of; Case law; Charters; Checks and balances; Constituencies; Constitutional courts; Constitutional law; Constitutional review; Constitutions; Courts; Decisions; Elections; Electoral systems; Grants; Green parties; Jurisdiction (International law); Legislatures; Parliamentary elections; Political parties; Proportional representation; Voting rights; EUROPEAN UNION; Czech Republic
• ISSN: 1574-0196; 1744-5515
• DOI: 10.1017/S1574019621000328

The nature of the Czech electoral system is explicitly prescribed in the Constitution of the Czech Republic (hereinafter the 'Constitution'). The Constitution grants legislative power to the Czech Parliament, which consists of two chambers: the Chamber of Deputies (hereinafter the 'Chamber'); and the Senate. To effectively secure the Senate's role in the system of checks and balances (which presupposes the different political compositions of both chambers), different electoral periods (of four and six years respectively) and systems are prescribed for the chambers. While 'elections to the Chamber of Deputies are held by secret ballot on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage, according to the principle of proportional representation', the Senate is elected 'according to the principle of a majoritarian system'. The specifics of the electoral system, however, are left to be determined by the legislature and have been changed and also reviewed by the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic Court (hereinafter the 'Court') several times in the past three decades.