ČPŽP 62

4/2021

Úvodník

Editorial

Dear readers, you are opening the 62th issue of our magazine (4/2021). The main thematic topics of this issue of the journal is spatial planning and construction law in relation to environmental protection and climate change. It was created in response to the adoption of the new Building Act No. 283/2021 Coll. and Act No. 284/2021 Coll. amending some related laws. Both of these pieces of legislation are due to come into force on 1 July 2023. Both were drafted, debated and voted on in Parliament in a “very non-standard way”. This new legislation on spatial planning and construction law is the result of a proposal by the former Czech government led by Andrej Babiš, representing mainly the interests of large lobby and development investor groups. The new political changes that have come to the Czech Republic with the outcome of the parliamentary elections in October 2021 have given the opportunity to start thinking about a new Czech imposed construction law in a somewhat more comprehensive and rational form. This issue of the journal aims to discuss in more detail both the current Czech construction law - the new and the old construction law - and to make some reflections for the future. The individual contributions not only present a description and analysis of the current legal regulations and their functioning, but there are also some synthetic and long-term reflective articles. Through this issue of our journal, we would like to contribute to the discussion on the need for changes, both to the current, but still ineffective, building law, as well as to a larger reflection on how building law could look like in the Czech Republic (in comparison with the planning regulations of other countries). Finally, I would like to thank not only all the contributors to this issue, but also the Norwegian Funds and the Green Circle environmental association, within the framework of whose project “Changing the Climate” the publication of this journal was supported both morally and financially. May Czech construction law in the future cease to serve economic development unilaterally, but also become a means of social cohesion and environmental protection. I wish you interesting and inspiring reading.

Milan Damohorský president of Czech Society for Environmental Law

♠♠

ČESKÉ PRÁVO ŽIVOTNÍHO PROSTŘEDÍ

9