Journal of the Charles University Law Faculty
Jan Novotný
Author’s affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague
How do courts inform about their decision-making? A comparison of selected Czech courts in the area of the public presentation of their decisions
Jurisprudence 1/2022 Section: Articles Page: 12-25
Keywords: presentation of court decisions, open justice, communication with the public, press releases
Abstract: The article deals with the issue of the public presentation of judicial decisions. The basic thesis of this text is that courts should actively, openly, and purposefully inform the public and the media of their decisions. The first part of the work is dedicated to an analysis of the essential aspects of the active presentation of court decisions. It contains the reasons that lead the judiciary to actively inform about its decisions, the benefits and risks of open communication of courts in this sphere, and the tools they can use to do so. The second part consists of the author’s own research, which is based on collecting data from selected Czech courts, concerning their approach in this area. The author compares the acquired information among each other and seeks to find out what are the similarities of the media strategies of the courts in this sphere and how do they differ. The final part considers the possible causes of the identified differences.
