Hubert Smekal

Narrowing the Divide: Perspectives on the Future of Mixed Methods Report From Central and Eastern Europe

The main aim of this article is to place the report ‘‘ThenFuture of Mixed Methods: A Five Year Projection to 2020’’ tonthe context of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). First, thenimpact of the heritage of socialist regimes, such as theninstitutional discontinuities and the hegemony of historicalnmethods, on the quality of methodology in research and inneducation is described. It is argued that most local academicsntypically rejected quantification of social science andnadvocated for the use of qualitative and interpretativenapproaches, yet (qualitative) methodological rigor was missing.nSecond, the persisting specific regional challenges to thenrigorous use of methodology are presented. These include highnlevels of inbreeding, lack of methodologically competent PhDnsupervision, and a strong path dependency of research careerntrajectories. As post-transitional societies have experiencednserious and unique problems, only a limited number of CEEnacademics and institutions possess necessary methodologicalnskills to participate in the current research debates. Finally,nit is asserted that mixed methods research (MMR) is well suitednto overcome the path dependency and help avoid the unproductiven‘‘paradigm war’’ fought elsewhere for decades. Based on thenrecommendations made by the Report, windows of opportunity fornMMR in the CEE region are introduced, including severalnconcrete steps that would encourage and facilitate thisntransition. The active participation of the MMR community andnan understanding of the context would be extremely helpful fornachieving a more rigorous level of methodology in CEE.

Searching for a Reference: Using Automated Text Analysis to Study Judicial Compliance

The concept of judicial compliance has attracted plenty of attention in the last two decades. Yet, despite the growing scholarly interest, important research questions remain largely unresolved. This is partly due to the persistent use of unsystematic research, built on the cherry picking of cases. The content of only a few well-known judgments has been thoroughly examined, and the rest remains largely ignored by the legal scholarship. The aim of this article is to introduce a sketch of a new three-level approach for improving research on judicial compliance in a multi-level arena. We show how the use of automated text analysis in combination with more traditional legal methods might shed more light on the concept of judicial compliance and judicial dialogues. We explain the procedure of the automated collection of data and their coding and also point out the risks of using automated text analysis when studying judicial compliance. The approach is demonstrated on a single case study of the use of European Court of Human Rights rulings by Czech apex courts. This study assesses how often and in what way the domestic courts engage with the European Court of Human Rights case law.

International Human Rights in Czech Legal Education

Summary The paper presents novel data on international human rights in the Czech legal education. The importance of international human rights treaties and case-law of human rights bodies in the domestic practice gradually increases, therefore the students of Czech law schools should be familiar with the grounds of the sub-discipline, especially with the interpretative techniques used by international human rights bodies. The paper categorizes the approaches which the Czech law faculties employ as regards educating students in international human rights field and evaluates advantages and disadvantages of the approaches implemented by individual law schools. Finally, the paper identifies weak spots in Czech legal curricula and proposes some ideas for improvement.

Výzkum lidských práv: Kritická reflexe současných přístupů

Ctyři vybrane publikace totiž vhodně ilustruji soucasnenrelevantni pozice kritických pohledů na mezinarodninlidskopravni režimy. Samuel Moyn (2014b, Human Rights and thenUses of History) zastupuje pohled kritických historiků, EricnPosner (2014, The Twilight of Human Rights Law) perspektivunpravniků s přesahem do mezinarodnich vztahů, Risse, Ropp anSikkink (2013, The Persistent Power of Human Rights) a kolektivnpolitologů a teoretiků mezinarodnich vztahů a konecněnFollesdal, Schaffer, Ulfstein (2013, The Legitimacy ofnInternational Human Rights Regimes) a dalsi přistup filosofů anpravnich teoretiků. Zaroveň take vybirame tyto knihy proto, ženukazuji různorodost soucasných přistupů – od empirických přesnteoreticke až po kriticke. Rovněž teoreticka perspektivanpřinasi znacnou diferencovanost, knihy zahrnuji jak zastupcenkonstruktivistických (Risse, Ropp a Sikkink et al.), taknneorealistických (Posner) přistupů. Na zakladě vybranýchnpublikaci předestirame argumenty a proti-argumenty ze soucasnendebaty o mezinarodnich lidských pravech, ktera ve srovnani sndřivějsimi lety přesla do kritictějsiho tonu. Argumenty, kterenprosakuji vybranými publikacemi autorských kolektivů, se dajinrozdělit do tři velkých okruhů: (1) kriticka reflexe samotnenpodstaty a legitimity mezinarodnich lidskopravnich režimů anjejich nastaveni a obsahu, (2) kritika a obhajoba jejichnfungovani a působeni, a konecně (3) reflexe soucasneho výzkumunmezinarodnich lidskopravnich režimů.

Equal voting power under scrutiny: Czech Constitutional Court on the 5% threshold in the 2014 European Parliament Elections

This article analyzes the Czech Constitutional Courts decisionnconcerning the legal threshold in European Parliamentnelections. It puts the decicion in the broader framework ofnEuropean multi-level governance.

DH v Czech Republic Six Years Later: On the Power of an International Human Rights Court to Push through Systemic Change

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is often portrayed as the most developed regional human rights court, one which wields the power to influence practices in its Member States. In 2007, the Grand Chamber of the Court issued a famous ruling in the case DH v Czech Republic, which condemned discrimination of Roma children in education. The problem criticized in the DH case is of a systemic character; in order to comply with the ECtHRs judgment, the Czech Republic would have to change its whole system of primary education. In our article, we discuss the ability of an international human rights body to push through a significant change in one of its Contracting Parties. We seek to draw more general propositions from the case study of DH v Czech Republic which can be tested by further studies – we try to identify factors and circumstances which support or hinder an international human rights court in its effort of pushing through a systemic change.