Politics Behind the Appointment of Justices to the Czech Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic has celebrated its 24th anniversary. During two decades and a half, the three Presidents of the Czech Republic have nominated 61 candidates for the position of Justice of the Constitutional Court. However, the Senate (during 1993 and 1994 of the Chamber of Deputies) eventually confirmed only 41 of them. The aim of this article is to identify the factors that turned out to be decisive for approving or rejecting the individual candidates. This analysis allows us to identify the shared characteristics of successful candidates, the role of social and cultural capital of the candidates, the preferences of three Czech Presidents as well as the Senate about future Justices of the Czech Constititional Court, and to what extent the vetiing points managed to enforce their political preferences. Moreover, as the Czech Constitution allows retention of Justices, which is a rather unique feature among European constitutional courts, this paper also sheds light on how retention mechanisms work at top civil law courts and what motivates Justices to seek a second term.