As early as 1 January 2024, a new regulation was added to the collection of laws - Building Act No. 283/2021. Construction proceedings in the Czech Republic are considered to be unreasonably complex and long. But has the new Building Act really ’hit the nail on the head’ in its attempt to deal with this process? The new regulation is effective from 1 January 2024 for reserved types of construction (certain transport and industrial buildings). For ordinary structures (such as single family homes or apartment buildings), the law is effective from 1 July 2024.
Does a copyright to a work exist if it is created by artificial intelligence? Does copyright extend to the subject matter of the work itself, which a person submits to an AI and which then completely fabricates the artwork? The Municipal Court of Prague issued a decision on this matter in the autumn 2023.
With the beginning of 2024, there are many changes to the tax legislation. Although these changes will not be reflected in tax returns filed for 2023, it is undoubtedly a good idea to familiarize yourself with them in advance and consider your options for tax optimization during 2024. The aim of this text is therefore to present some of the key changes that we are likely to encounter in 2024.
There is currently no legal regulation of lobbying in the Czech Republic, which is not an exception in the European context. According to the latest data, only about a quarter of European Union countries regulate lobbying at the statutory level. However, it should be pointed out that in the Czech Republic, lobbying is neither so-called self-regulated, for example, by associations of lobbyists or entities representing interest groups, nor, for example, is there a code of ethics for lobbying by Members of Parliament, which is far from common.
We already wrote about the planned changes in the labour law in June this year, but during the legislative process several important changes have been made that not only concern the content but also the effectiveness of the amended law. In fact, the Chamber of Deputies has stuck to its original proposal, which means that the expected postponement of the amendment's entry into force to 1 January 2024 will not take place. Most of the significant changes are therefore already effective from 1 October 2023.
The Act on Class Proceedings should enrich the Czech legal system with a new legal institution, which is generally called a class action. Although class actions are typical of Anglo-American legal systems, due to their indisputable advantages it was only a matter of time before they started to appear in continental legal systems as well.
At the end of June 2023, the Whistleblower Protection Act came into force, implementing the European Union Directive on the protection of whistleblowers into Czech law. It should be noted at the very beginning, that the Act expands the areas to which reported infringements may relate compared to the Directive.
In the coming weeks, a major amendment to the Labour Code is to be adopted, which is expected to be effective from 1 January 2024. Although it is still possible that the introduced legislation will change, it is most likely to be only partial details. The main purpose of this amendment is to transpose two EU directives. In other words, the state is obliged to incorporate the legislation contained in the directives into the Czech legal system.
In recent months, the change of the Decree of the Ministry of Justice on the remuneration of attorneys and compensation of attorneys for the provision of legal services (the so-called attorney tariff) has become a significant topic. According to the Ministry of Justice, the aim of this amendment is to adjust the remuneration of attorneys so that the amount of remuneration is adjusted to the inflation rate, the increase in the minimum wage, the average wage in the business sphere, the expenses for the remuneration of judges and prosecutors, as well as the professional demand of the activities undertaken and the level of responsibility of the attorney.
Although it may seem rather surprising, the 2018 amendment to the Advocacy Act, in an effort to expand access to free legal aid for persons whose income and financial circumstances justify it, also unthinkingly prevented applicants who are willing to pay for the legal services in question from applying for the appointment of an attorney by the Czech Bar Association (CBA).