Staff Composition

Head

doc. JUDr. Martin Hapla, Ph.D.

In his scientific activity he is engaged in legal philosophy and ethics. He mainly investigates philosophical issues related to human rights and the application of theories of normative ethics in law. He also deals with theoretical problems of professional ethics of lawyers. In the past, he has also been interested in the separation of powers and the position of the judicial branch.

Deputy

JUDr. Bc. Markéta Štěpáníková, Ph.D.

She has long been concerned with the relationship between law and art in its various forms. On a theoretical level, within the Law and Literature strand, she explores how art influences law in its content and methods. In a positive-legal sense, she addresses the regulation of the arts within Art Law, most recently questions of the legal status of the artist and the public cultural institution. Her topics of interest include law and theatre in particular, but also law and film or visual arts and architecture. She also focuses on soft skills issues in legal teaching and practice, particularly legal writing and rhetoric. Her research also touches on professional ethics and the sociology of law, with a particular emphasis on Critical Legal Studies. Since 2015, she has been the director of the Faculty Theatre Society.

Professors

prof. JUDr. PhDr. Miloš Večeřa, CSc.

In his scientific research and publications, he has long been focused on legally theoretical and legally sociological issues of globalization and europeanisation of law, legal pluralism and the legitimacy of law. He has a long-standing interest in the normative theory of the Brno School of Law, especially the work of František Weyr and his students, particularly Ota Weinberger and Vladimír Kubeš. His work focuses on issues of justice and equality in the context of the emerging late modern society, which is changing the role of law and other normative systems of society and is reflected in the legal consciousness of individuals and society.

Associate Professors

doc. JUDr. Tomáš Sobek, Ph.D.

His academic work focuses on analytical philosophy of law and metaethics. In his recent publications, he has dealt with topics such as the generalization of Alexy's explicative argument, the utilitarian theory of human rights as an explanatory project, the analysis of the concept of tolerance, the relationship between metaphysics and pragmatism in a moral context, and, last but not least, whether human rights as moral rights objectively exist.

doc. JUDr. Mgr. Martin Škop, Ph.D.

Martin Škop focuses on Critical Legal Studies and the Law and Literature movement. In doing so, he takes a critical look at the position of law in contemporary society and the shortcomings that may be overlooked by the majority approach. He also focuses on the social and methodological aspects of lawmaking, including the way in which laws are actually written. His primary areas of interest also include the methodology of legal science or legal interpretation, i.e., a focus on the ways in which scientific inquiry into the law is to be conducted, or the ways in which legal norms are extracted from the legal text.

doc. PhDr. Martina Urbanová, Ph.D.

She has been for a long time focused on social control and law as a tool of social control, social deviance, legal consciousness and mediation as an alternative method of dispute resolution. Currently, she is particularly interested in mediation and its use in the field of law, for which she makes plentiful use of empirical methods. She is also interested in topics in the field of rhetoric and in her research she prefers to focus on contemporary social problems in which law does not act as an autopoietic system, but as an open system that is in the process of interaction with the surrounding environment, especially with the economic and political system.

Assistant Professors

Mgr. Ing. John Altair Gealfow, Ph.D.

John A. Gealfow focuses on the application of concepts of legal theory in application practice, particularly in judicial decision-making. His dissertation research, conducted at the École doctorale de droit de la Sorbonne and at the Masaryk University Faculty of Law, focused on legal certainty, its philosophical foundations and its application by Czech courts, the ECHR and the ECJ. John researches comparative law and its methodology, his interest is also the concept of legal consciousness and the ways of measuring and improving it.

JUDr. Michal Malaník, Ph.D.

The focus of his professional interest is the interpretation of law and the broader context of decision-making in law. Therefore, within his scientific and publishing activities he has long focused primarily on the theoretical and practical aspects of judicial decision-making, including empirical research in this area helping to illuminate the processes leading to the issuance of a specific form of judicial decision. He also focuses on alternative dispute resolution, particularly mediation and negotiation, their various forms, benefits and use in the contemporary legal environment.

JUDr. Bc. Terezie Smejkalová, Ph.D.

She is interested in the world of law, the ways we conceptualize it and keep it alive. To this end, she focuses on the intersections between law and language and law and cognitive methods. Her research is strongly interdisciplinary and largely empirical in nature. Her current research focuses mainly on the use of the social psychological approach of social representations for the analysis of legal concepts. She has also been working for a long time on the phenomenon of case-law in the Czech legal system.

Mgr. Bc. Linda Tvrdíková, Ph.D.

In her scientific research and publications, she focuses on the question of interpretation of law and the related issue of judicial decision-making, where she approaches these traditional topics of legal theory and legal philosophy from the perspective of analytical philosophy. She focuses in particular on the philosophy of language and social ontology, believing that through these disciplines it is possible to better explain the various phenomena commonly encountered in law.

JUDr. PhDr. Jakub Valc, Ph.D., LL.M.

His scientific research and publications have long been focused on bioethical, legal and human rights aspects of the use of biomedical technologies, including related issues concerning the status of the embryo. Thus, his professional interests include not only traditional topics such as abortion, but also issues related to various procedures in the field of reproductive medicine and assisted reproduction, such as gamete donation, surrogacy and research on human embryos.

Assistants

Mgr. Michal Vosinek

His main research interest is the role of emotions in law. His research focuses on the role of emotion and sensibility in legal decision-making. More generally, he is interested in the interaction of law, psychology and philosophy, for example, the influence of psychological processes on legal decision-making and its ethical dimension.

Mgr. Dennis Wassouf

He is currently working on his dissertation on Law and Contemporary Critique of Ideology. His research focuses on the analysis of the meaning of ideology for legal reasoning and methodological issues of critique of the concept of law, power and legitimacy. He therefore subscribes to the Critical Legal Studies movement. His work blends legal philosophy, legal sociology and comparative constitutional law to explore the links between law and politics. His main focus is on so-called Lacanian political theory. His other interests include the relation of law to art or psychoanalysis.

Lecturers

JUDr. Lukáš Hlouch, Ph.D.

In his professional and scientific activity, he has previously focused on the theory of law in general and on the theory of legal interpretation and argumentation. He specializes in hermeneutical trends in legal science. In recent years, he has been working on the problem of indeterminacy of legal language and theories of legal argumentation (discursive theory, legal topics, etc.). In this field he publishes mainly in collective monographs and conference compendiums. In addition to his scientific activities in the field of legal theory and legal philosophy, he also deals with the theory of administrative law, with particular reference to administrative justice and its role in the rule of law.