Employers’ Constitutional Protection against Retroactive Measures Aimed to Prolong Their Administrative Liability by Increasing Time Limitation

Abstract

: In year 2017, the Czech Act on Administrative Liability pro-longed a period within which administrative agencies must bring a claim against a defendant. Said Act was the so-called ex post facto law, i.e. a law that retroactively changes the rules of procedure in force at the time an al-leged administrative tort was committed in a way substantially disadvan-tageous to the accused. The Act on Administrative Liability was challenged in the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic which quashed the respec-tive disputed paragraph of the above-stated Act. The retroactively pro-longed timeframe violated a policy-based reason that a defendant should not have the threat of being sued for longer period of time than set forth in the law applicable at the time when the tort was committed. The compe-tent state agency should have an incentive to bring claims as soon as possi-ble.