In dubio pro libertate. In memory of Eliška Wagnerová (1948–2025)


I met Dr Eliška Wagnerová in her office at the Constitutional Court when we were preparing the publication In dubio pro libertate. It was in 2008. She turned sixty that year and it was no secret that the book was being written to mark her birthday. There were nice discussions about the content prepared by the editors Marian Kokeš and Ivo Pospíšil. We also discussed the title and graphic design with Eva Lufferová, and it was her suggestion that the cover motif should be a facsimile of the United States Constitution. She readily lent us the material. The meetings often turned into mini-lectures, not only on law. The collaboration culminated in a book launch in the spring of 2009, in conjunction with a seminar of experts. We organised this together with the editors and Jiří Nantl, the chairman of the editorial board. Pavel Rychetský, President of the Constitutional Court, Vladimír Klokočka, Judge Emeritus of the Constitutional Court, Petr Pithart, Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and Kateřina Šimáčková, Assistant Professor at the Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Masaryk University.
The book In dubio pro libertate. Reflections on the constitutional values and law. Tribute to Eliška Wagnerová was published as the first volume of the new Masaryk University series "Tributes to Personalities".
It is still relevant and it is as if I heard Dr Eliška Wagnerová again: "...when examining the intervention of the state power, the principle of in dubio pro libertate must always be applied - in case of doubt, one must side with the citizen."
-- Alena Mizerová, Head of the Masaryk University Press