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Prior to the start of the spring semester, the department carried out an evaluation of the projects resulting from specific doctoral research in the previous year 2023. The collaborative efforts resulted in a total of 4 student projects and 2 student conferences. The department also welcomed new research assistants.

Dr. Terezie Smejkalová has published an article in The International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. In the text entitled Legal Concepts as Social Representations, she focuses on the issue of legal concepts, which in contemporary legal research are often understood as mental representations and studied primarily through the lens of cognitive science. The author presents the fallacies and blind spots of this approach and proposes an interdisciplinary approach instead. The article is highly recommended to be read.

From spring 2024, the department will offer a brand new course, Law and Language, which will introduce students to the philosophy of language and teach them how to analyze legal texts using modern concepts of analytic philosophy. Students will also study hermeneutics or legal intuitions. We firmly believe that this course is going to become established in the faculty.

Dr. Jakub Valec has published a monograph in German entitled "Die Abtreibung als Gesundheitsdienstleistung und ihre grenzüberschreitende (Nicht-)Verfügbarkeit innerhalb der Europäischen Union", which analyses the issue of abortion from a human rights perspective as well as from the perspective of abortion tourism and the functioning of the EU internal market. Congratulations on this success!

In 2022, Associate Professor Martin Hapla's monograph Utilitarianism and the Philosophy of Human Rights was published, sparking considerable public debate. The 11/2023 issue of Právník Journal published four critical texts together with the author's response, supplemented by another text devoted to a review of the book itself. In addition, Associate Professor Hapla, together with Associate Professor Tomáš Sobek, had the opportunity to discuss the topic at the 1st Philosophy of Human Rights Japan Workshop in autumn 2023.

Associate Professor Martin Hapla and Associate Professor Tomáš Sobek started working on the GAČR project "Human Rights and Welfarism" in 2023. In October 2023, together with Dr. Bartoš (Department of Political Science, FSS), they had the opportunity to present their research at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

In September 2023, part of the department attended the Critical Legal Conference in Durham. Unconventional perspectives on law and a custom stream called Fanfictions of Law were presented, and a pilot of a forthcoming board game simulating legal reasoning in judicial decision-making was played during the conference.

In September 2023, Assoc. Prof. Martin Hapla, Assoc. Prof. Tomáš Sobek and Mgr. Jana Stehlíková took part in the 1st European Conference on Legal Ethics organized by the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. Thanks to this fruitful meeting, our faculty will host the next edition of the conference.

The Faculty Theatre Society is not idle and rehearses new productions every year. Last year they staged a play called Nenávist, a documentary play about the Hilsner affair, Czechism and hatred within us. Based on a scandal, it is a reflection on prejudice and fear, but also on courage and hope.