Nová legislativa ke zlepšení ochrany základních složek životního prostředí (vody a půdy)

EDITORIAL
Dear readers,
you are opening the 71th issue of our magazine (1/2024). The main topics of this issue are:
One of the oldest international intergovernmental organisations, the Council of Europe, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. It was founded on 5 May 1949. Today, the Council of Europe has 47 member countries, including the Czech Republic. Throughout this time, it has made a significant contribution to the protection and strengthening of human rights. It even awards a prize in this field, named after President Mr Václav Havel. Over time, however, and especially since the 1960s, it has also focused its attention on the field of environmental protection.
In the field of environmental law, the Council of Europe has gradually secured a number of international treaties which can be divided into three groups. The first group, the oldest, is the group of agreements dealing with the protection of animals. The second group are agreements in the field of legal liability in relation to environmental protection. The third group consists of conventions in the field of nature and landscape protection. The article by Vojtěch Stejskal recalls which specific sources of international law make up these groups.
The protection of cruelty to animals and their welfare is a specialist area which, although it has its historical foundations, has been gaining importance and developing at international, regional and national levels, especially in recent times. The article by Kristýna Králová focuses on various aspects of animal care and welfare in the reflection of the courts practice. The subject of the article is mainly judicial decisions from recent years against the background of current legislation and selected opinions from the literature. The current judgment concerns mainly violation of the obligations laid down in Act No. 246/1992 Coll., on the protection of cruelty to animals, and other related legislation, also with regard to the amendments made in recent years. In the article the attention will be paid to violations of statutory obligations, which, depending on their nature and intensity, may be subject to administrative judiciary and the criminal justice system and practice. In the article the relevant conclusions of Court of Justice will also be of interest. The more fundamental conclusions arising from the case law of the courts will be quoted and analysed in more detail in the text.
International trade in wildlife products has been ongoing for centuries. However, in recent decades, due to globalization and technological advancement, it has expanded to such an extent that it now represents one of the most significant threats to biodiversity. Illegal international trade is often associated with a wide range of criminal activities and, in terms of scale, is comparable to the trade in drugs or arms. The aim of the article by Eliška Vítková is to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing legal framework on this issue and to analyse its effectiveness in practice.
As part of the cultural heritage, archaeological finds require specific protection measures. While the law explicitly regulates the handling and protection of movable finds, there is no specific legal framework for immovable finds. In the Czech Republic, it is generally assumed, based on norms of private law, that these finds are the property of the landowner on whose land they are located. The paper by Róbert Antal and co. examines and analyses the relevant public and private legislation to verify the accuracy and general validity of this standpoint. In terms of public legislation, the text primarily focuses on Act No. 20/1987 Coll., on state monument care, as amended. Regarding private law regulations, attention is given not only to the current Civil Code (Act No. 89/2012 Coll.), but also to older regulations that could potentially affect the ownership and protection of immovable archaeological finds. The chosen topic is approached from both a general perspective and in relation to specific types of immovable finds, such as graves and caves. The text is supplemented with specific examples that highlight the complexity of the issue in practice. Additionally, the article briefly touches upon the protection of immovable finds in Austria, Greece, and the United Kingdom, providing an overview of different approaches to their protection. Finally, the text concludes with brief suggestions for further discussion on the protection of immovable archaeological finds.
Further, hopefully interesting reading can be found again in the regular sections devoted to new laws, conferences and, of course, in the section mapping court case law (CJEU).