Constitutional act of the Czech Republic

A constitutional act, with respect to the laws of the Czech Republic, is an act which can change the Constitution of the Czech Republic, provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms, the conditions under which the citizenry may exercise state power directly, or the exterior or interior frontiers of the territory of the Czech Republic.

Passage of such an act can only be accomplished through the agreement of 3/5 of all Deputies and Senators present at the time the proposed act is laid before each house of Parliament. It is the only type of legislation which does not require the signature of the President to become law. Furthermore, it is the only type of legislation which the President cannot veto.

A number of constitutional acts were required for the Czech government to function in its first year of existence. However, those had no lasting impact upon the constitution itself, and may, in hindsight, be regarded as "votes which required 3/5 majorities". For instance, the Provisional Senate of 1992 was "constituted in a manner defined by a Constitutional Act", but that act is not binding upon the Senate today.

As of 2008^[update], only six constitutional acts have been passed which have truly changed the nature of the constitution. They have mostly been the result of implications in the original wording of the constitution that Parliament should pass constitutional acts on various subjects.

Article 100 of the constitution provided that "higher self-governing regions may be created or dissolved only by a constitutional act". Parliament thus moved on 3 December 1997 to create 14 such regions. This required the act to rewrite Article 99 and repeal Article 103 of the constitution, so as to set the regions as being of higher authority than municipalities. Given the administrative burden of complying with the act, however, it did not come into effect until 1 January 2000.

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