Zdeněk Červínek

Mr. Červínek came to the Human Rights Centre of the University of Potsdam in the summer semester of 2016 for an ERASMUS exchange programme.

His research deals with various aspects of proportionality, which represents the basic methodological approach towards constitutional rights adjudication. His doctoral research project has two main parts, the first one qualitative and the second one quantitative (empirical). The qualitative part consists of a comparative study of German, Canadian and South African theory and practice. From this study he draws basic hypotheses to be tested in the empirical part. The main goal of the empirical part represents the inquiry of mutual interconnection between necessity stage and the balancing stage of the proportionality analysis in the practice of the Czech Constitutional Court, which determines the intensity of review.

During his stay at the Human Rights Centre he was also working on a paper for the ICON.S Conference, June 17–19, 2016, Berlin. In this paper he addresses the million-dollar question raised in current doctrinal works concerning the applicability of proportionality to positive obligations and to socio-economic rights. He is trying to prove that proportionality in its full-extent (especially as regards the necessity stage) is not the most suitable method to review interferences in socio-economic rights, but the balancing stage must be upheld in the decision-making of courts even in the cases concerning socio-economic rights. He would like to demonstrate that the absence of balancing in review of constitutionality decreases the protection of individual’s fundamental rights. Limitation of review to mere means-ends analysis leaves out the individuals and intensity of interferences in their fundamental rights. Balancing must therefore be maintained even in the case of socio-economic rights.