CYIL 2012

THE PROTECTION OF FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS … There is a social consensus that theft is bad and deserves penalty; stealing intellectual property from the Internet is considered theft. However, the society is deemed to have accepted, by its tolerance as well as its active participation, that ownership may lose its value as if mental work were not real work and ownership had its human rights value only as a result of physical work. The third note is a reaction to an argument that the expanding catalogue of human rights results in the weakening of the feeling of responsibility and in the reduction of the scope of duties. Claims against the state/society arising from human rights may result in an assumption that one owes nothing to the society but requires more and more from it. This argument is dealt with by A. Gerloch; it is more than symbolic that his contribution is the first in the whole monograph. The collective monograph will undoubtedly contribute to the progress not only of human rights but also of the society, for whom human rights are most beneficial.

Ján Svák*

* Prof. JUDr. Ján Svák, DrSc. is the General Director of the Section of Editorial Activities of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic and the Director of the Legal Institute of the Ministry of Justice; he serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Judicial Revue Journal. His main academic and scholarly areas have been constitutional law and judiciary. He acts as Rector of the Pan-European University in Bratislava.

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