CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

PREFACE

Dear Readers, It is with great pleasure that I introduce the eleventh anniversary of the Czech Yearbook of Public & Private International Law (CYIL) already. Volume 11 appears, as usual, in the autumn, which is the regular time for the readers of this Yearbook who are interested in the developments in international law. We did our best to meet this expectation even in 2020 which is an unusual year, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Czech Yearbook was established by the Czech Society of International Law in 2010. It was done thanks to the Board and the members of this association of Czech international lawyers, both academics and practitioners, who felt a lacuna of such a specialized journal or yearbook. Since 2014, the Czech Yearbook has been published by the international publishers, RW&W, Science & New Media, Passau-Berlin-Praha, which also ensures, in cooperation with Süd Ost Service, its distribution in Germany and Western Europe. As you know, the CSIL publishes the Yearbook both in both printed and electronic versions (www.cyil.eu). Since 2015, the Czech Yearbook has been included in the Czech index of scholarly peer-reviewed journals (RVVI) and in the SCOPUS international database. This growth of the Czech Yearbook ranks it among the larger publications of its kind in an international comparison. However, the size of the Yearbook also warrants some technical improvements, such as a larger page size and better quality of the paper and cover used for the printed version. In spite of the higher publishing costs, we are proud to announce that this publication is still available for free for members of the Czech Society of International Law (included in the membership fee) and on sale for a very reasonable price. The Czech Yearbook, in spite of its difficult beginnings, has succeeded in attracting a sufficient number of authors and readers in the Czech Republic and abroad. It found its place among other similar publications on international law. As usual, Volume 11 (2020) presents a variety of studies and articles covering many issues of contemporary international and European law. The Yearbook begins with the Symposium on the 70 th Anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights (1950–2020). However, its purpose is not just to commemorate this important human rights treaty. The six articles in this section address some topical issues of the theory and practice of application of the Convention in the context of general international law. Other contributions include various subjects, ranging from the history of international law (the contribution of the League of Nations), through some issues of State immunity, to the current State responses to Covid-19 and the role of customary rules in the formation of international environmental law. The readers will also find many other traditional sections here, including international humanitarian law and criminal law. The section is introduced by the article of Prof. Dalibor Jílek on cultural property in the laws of war, aimed at the memory of Professor Jiří Toman, the internationally recognized scholar of Czech origin and the leading expert in the field of international humanitarian law. As last year, the CYIL also presents a section on international law and EU law with six articles on a wide range of issues, including some aspects of fundamental rights under the EU Charter, case law of the CJEU concerning application of the Aarhus Convention, some

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