Ernest Valko

Ernest Valko, JUDr., PhD. (August 10, 1953 – November 8, 2010) was the former Chairman of the Czechoslovak Constitutional Court and prominent Slovak lawyer. Valko was shot dead inside his home in Limbach in 2010. As of May 2011, the investigation is still ongoing. According to newspaper Nový Čas, one of the versions points to an organized crime group from Bratislava.

Ernest Valko was connected to numerous high-profile lawsuits at the time of his death.

Ernest Valko was born in Spišská Nová Ves, at that time Czechoslovakia. He received his M.A. at the Faculty of Law, Comenius University in Bratislava (1973 - 1977). In 1979 he received his rigorosum at the same school. From 2000 to 2004 he studied postgradually at the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, earning his dissertation in 2004.

After the Velvet Revolution, he was co-opted by Verejnosť proti násiliu (the Slovak counterpart of the better known Civic Forum) as a Member of Parliament into the Federálne zhromaždenie (English: Federal assembly) in 1990. During his time in the parliament, Valko helped formulate the novelisations of the Labour Law, Trade Law, Competence Law, implementing the Charter of fundamental rights and freedoms and the constitutional Law of Referendum. He served as the deputy speaker of the Lower House of the Czechoslovak federal parliament (Czech: Sněmovna lidu) in the period 1990 - 1991. From January 31, 1992 to December 31, 1992 he was the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Czechoslovakia, the only one in its history.

After the creation of Slovakia in 1993 he established his own law firm and specialised in constitutional law. In 2006 he unsuccessfully run for the Slovak parliament.

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