CYIL 2015

404

VÍT ALEXANDER SCHORM

CYIL 6 ȍ2015Ȏ

minor children. It is therefore less interesting to describe these cases as a whole and

only a few remarks will be made in their regard.

In the case of

T. v. the Czech Republic

(no. 19315/11, judgment of 17 July 2014),

the main difficulty was linked to protracted proceedings on the situation of the child

and to a lack of clarity as to the decision making on the child’s temporary stays

outside a child care institution with her father, who lodged the application also on

behalf of the child. The Court found a violation of Article 8 of the Convention on

account of the authorities’ failure to help the applicants maintain their family ties.

According to the Court no violation of the Convention occurred in the case of

Drenk v. the Czech Republic

(no. 1071/12, judgment of 4 September 2014), which

was a “classical” dispute between parents over the child.

The Court nonetheless

complemented its case law on the types of domestic remedies to be exhausted with

respect to complaints of a breach of the reasonable time requirement under Article 6

§ 1 of the Convention in connection with this kind of dispute and admitted that the

Czech legal order offers potential applicants a choice between a preventive (acceleratory)

and compensatory remedy (request for setting a time limit for a procedural act and

claim for damages under the Act on responsibility for damages caused in the exercise

of public power respectively).

Turning back to the matter of the delivery of children, it can be pointed out that

children in the Czech Republic are usually born in a maternity hospital. All expectant

mothers can be admitted to a hospital where medical doctors – obstetricians and

neonatologists – are available. It is also recommended that mothers stay in hospital

for around 72 hours after the delivery, so that the good health of the new-born is

ascertained before the mother and the child leave hospital for home.

This nonetheless gave rise to two types of applications to the Court, one related

to outpatient deliveries, the other to deliveries performed outside hospital. Some

mothers do not find it necessary to stay in hospital after delivery when everything is

all right, and some mothers do not find it useful to give birth to their child in hospital

at all.

1.1 Outpatient deliveries

In the case of

Hanzelkovi v. the Czech Republic

(no. 43643/10, judgment of

11 December 2014, adopted by five votes to two), after the delivery of her child the

Dozens of cases of this kind have been filed against the Czech Republic. They resulted in the Court’s

finding a violation of Article 6 § 1 (on account of the length of proceedings) in approximately 13 cases

and/or a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for family life) in 14 cases; a number of applications

raising these issues were also declared inadmissible.

For the former: Article 174a of Act no. 6/2002 on courts, judges, assessors and State administration

of the courts, as amended by Acts nos. 192/2003 and 7/2009. For the latter: Act no. 82/1998 on

responsibility for damages caused in the exercise of public power by a decision or an incorrect official

procedure, as amended by Act no. 160/2006.