Private law and civil procedural law

The Doctoral Programme in Private Law and Civil Procedure is designed to include several disciplines that represent separate scientific and pedagogical fields and separate branches of our legal system. Each of them has its own values, its own subject matter and institutes that need attention. At the same time, there are certain links between them which justify their joint inclusion in one study programme. The private law disciplines include civil law, commercial law, labour law, but also family law and intellectual property law. Central among them is civil law, which is the fundamental private law from which the specific private law disciplines grow. Civil procedural law is a public law discipline that provides protection to private law - and thus to all these branches.

In terms of the classification of the basic subject areas contained under A. in Part Twenty-Second of Government Decree No. 275/2016 Coll., on the fields of education in higher education, the doctoral programme in private law and civil procedural law includes the following disciplines: civil law [point (e) of the cited part of the Government Decree], civil procedural law [point (h)], commercial law [point (k)] and labour law [point (n)].

The form of study may be full-time or combined.

Teaching will be conducted in the Czech language.

In accordance with Section 47(1) of Act No. 111/1998 Coll., on Higher Education, the proposed doctoral study programme is focused on scientific research and independent creative activity in the field of private law and civil procedural law. Its task is therefore to educate new legal scientists who will deal with individual topics falling within the above-mentioned fields, e.g. property rights, bonds, family law, intellectual property law, civil litigation, uncontested proceedings, executions, insolvency, as well as more general institutes such as legal actions, procedural acts, etc.

To achieve this goal, the entire doctoral study is tailored to the individual study plan. The study will be aimed at deepening the student's methodological knowledge and skills in the early stages; without mastering these, it is impossible to produce a meaningful dissertation. It is the latter that is to be the focus of doctoral studies. The student should subject the chosen dissertation topic to in-depth scientific research and, after four years of continuous research, should present a thesis that truly brings new insights and advances the field. In addition, doctoral studies must aim to deepen knowledge of the field well beyond the master's degree in areas other than the dissertation topic. Finally, the development of the student's pedagogical skills is also an inseparable goal of doctoral studies. After all, it is natural that the most talented doctoral graduates become future university teachers.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• orientation in private law and civil procedural law, relevant literature and case law according to the focus of study
• interpret on a scientific level the legislation falling within these fields
• to write scientific and professional articles, monographs and commentaries of laws, or parts thereof, independently or in cooperation with other authors
• present your own research results in professional forums
• teaching in bachelor's and master's degree programs

Graduates can primarily find employment in law-oriented universities or scientific institutions in the field of their specialization. Territorially, it can be assumed that this employment will be limited to the territory of the Czech Republic and possibly also the Slovak Republic. The reason for the greater difficulty in applying abroad is not so much the language barrier as the persistent differences in the legal systems of the various countries.

Of course, graduates can also find employment outside the academic or scientific sphere.

Given the importance of private law and civil procedural law described above, graduates of the proposed doctoral programme are ideal candidates for the post of assistant judge and later judge themselves. This is favourably facilitated by the location of all the highest judicial bodies (the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, and possibly also the Supreme Administrative Court) in Brno. Thus, students of the combined doctoral studies can already start their legal practice at one of these courts during their studies. Apart from the judiciary, graduates will also find employment in other typical legal professions, i.e. as attorneys, notaries or bailiffs, or as their employees. This includes the profession of legislator in one of the ministries, which is currently in a deep decline and it is certainly in the public interest to remedy this situation.

Although the doctoral study programme does not foresee the introduction of a system of compulsory internships, students' contact with internships is ensured in other ways. First of all, the advantage of the local law faculty can be built on the fact that Brno is home to the highest judicial authorities - the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court. Apart from the fact that many doctoral students are employed as assistants in these courts, the proximity of these courts can be used to enable their judges to attend conferences, seminars or other forms of doctoral teaching, to oppose dissertations or to sit on the state final examination committee for doctoral studies or on the doctoral study board (still a subject committee). This is already the case now and, as this system has proved its worth, it can be built upon in the future. In this context, it should be emphasised that, compared to the current situation, it is planned to strengthen the role of the subject board in assessing the fulfilment of the doctoral student's obligations, including the procedure for writing the dissertation. This creates an opportunity for the representatives of the practice to give doctoral students their practical perspective on the results of their research.

The dissertation is an original scientific work containing the results of research carried out on the basis of an approved individual study plan. In terms of content, the text must demonstrate a high level of mastery of the subject assignment, including its theoretical and methodological context. The text must also demonstrate the doctoral student's ability to work with relevant domestic and foreign professional literature, archival sources and to independently formulate and argue complex professional opinions.

The standard length of the thesis ranges from 150 to 300 standard pages including the title page, Czech and English abstract, table of contents and list of sources. Detailed conditions for the format and editing of dissertations are set by the Dean of the Faculty and the Departmental Board in the form of an internal regulation.