CYIL 2012

PREFACE

Dear Readers, You have in your hands the third volume of the Czech Yearbook of Public & Private International Law (CYIL). This Czech Yearbook is a scholarly publication of the Czech Society of International Law, acting in cooperation with the Czech Branch of the International Law Association. According to its Statute, the CSIL covers both Public and Private International Law in its Czech Yearbook, including some aspects of European law. The CSIL publishes the Yearbook both in printed and electronic versions (www. cyil.eu). For the third volume, we are proud to offer the electronic version in a user friendly format of the E-book, suitable for PCs, notebooks and tablets. The Czech Yearbook stems from the academic tradition but it is also open to new technologies. However, the content is or should be, in our opinion, as important as the form, if not even more important. From this point view, Volume 3 (2012) keeps the standards set in the first two volumes. The variety of studies and articles in this volume covers many issues of contemporary International and European law, including EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, rights of child and immigration law, and nuclear liability. An important number of articles deal with international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international and European asylum law. Some contributions concern various issues of international criminal law and criminal justice. According to its title, Volume 3 of the CYIL also covers certain aspects of international economic law (investment and trade law) as well as private and commercial law. Moreover, the publication also presents topical information on Czech cases before the European Court of Human Rights in 2011, the activities of the Sixth Committee at the 66 th session of the UN General Assembly and, most recently, the work of the International Law Commission in 2012. As usual, the authors of this publication come from the leading Czech academic and other institutions, such as Charles University in Prague, Masaryk University in Brno, Palacky University in Olomouc, the Institute of Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the University of Economics in Prague, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Institute of International Relations, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as well as from private law firms. However, the editors keep the Czech Yearbook open to authors from abroad. More than in the two previous years, this volume includes contributions of foreign professors and researchers, coming from or teaching in Austria, Iceland, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and the USA. In keeping the Yearbook open, we want it to become not only Czech but also a European and international project, the Prague-based platform for dialogue of scholars and practitioners of international law.

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