Editorial

The current Special Issue of Právny Obzor is devoted to the issue of human rights. While human rights are an integral element of a democratic state governed by the rule of law, the concept remains one of the most contested topics in legal thought, with theoretical disputes continuing over the optimal justification of human rights, their universality and their impact on the integrity or well-being of society. Human rights are also a pivotal issue in the debate between legal positivism and natural law theory, and they constitute a friction point between various competing political ideologies.

Beyond these more abstract aspects, human rights also give rise to arguments in practice, especially in terms of their authoritative application by constitutional, international and supranational courts. How do we balance the need for adequate judicial protection for human rights while maintaining a balanced separation of powers at both horizontal and vertical levels? Can specific institutional arrangements for state power be enforced through international and transnational means of protecting huma