Michal Bobek
Research Fellow
Michal Bobek is Professor of European Law at the College of Europe, Bruges. Previously Anglo-German Fellow at the Institute of European and Comparative Law, he remains research fellow at the Institute.
Michal studied law and international relations in Prague (Charles University, M.A. law; B.A international studies; M.A. international relations/European studies), Oxford (M. Jur.) and European University Institute in Florence (M. Res; Ph.D.), with further non-degree studies in Brussels (Université libre de Bruxelles) and Brisbane (University of Queensland). He also obtained Diploma in English and EU Law from the University of Cambridge. He qualified as a judge in the Czech Republic and previously worked as legal secretary to the Chief Justice and also as the head of the Research and Documentation Department at the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic.
Michal’s areas of interest include various aspects of European Union law, European human rights law, and comparative (public) law. In these areas, he has been lecturing not just to (university) students, but also to judges and legal practitioners in professional/continuing education, being inter alia external lecturer at both Slovak and Czech Judicial Academies. He is the author, co-author or editor of nine books, two academic commentaries and dozens of articles and case notes, published in Czech, English, French and German, with works translated also into Romanian, Polish and Russian. He co-founded and presides over the Czech Society for European and Comparative Law (FIDE national association for the Czech Republic). Over the last years, he has been observing and occasionally got also involved in judicial and legal reform in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2012, he has been nominated by the Czech Republic as an ad hoc judge to the European Court of Human Rights.
His PhD thesis on comparative reasoning in European supreme courts, which won the 2012 Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the best thesis in comparative law at the European University Institute, is forthcoming in August 2013 with the Oxford University Press.
Publications
These publications do not form part of our database, which only holds information about current and former members of the Faculty. This means that only items co-authored with members of the Faculty are likely to appear on other, related, lists elsewhere on our site(s).
N. B.: Most of the publications are freely accessible via the SSRN.
Journal articles (selection)
M Bobek "A Fourth in the Court: Why Are There Advocates-General in the Court of Justice?" Forthcoming in: (2011 - 2012)14 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 529
M Bobek, "The Administration of Courts in the Czech Republic – in Search of a Constitutional Balance" (2010) 16 European Public Law 251
M Bobek, "Corrigenda in the Official Journal of the European Union: Community Law as Quicksand" (2009) 34 European Law Review 950
M Bobek, "Quantity or Quality? Reassessing the Role of Supreme Jurisdictions in Central Europe" (2009) 57 (1) American Journal of Comparative Law 33
M Bobek, "Learning to Talk: Preliminary Rulings, the Courts of the New Member States and the Court of Justice" (2008) 45 Common Market Law Review 1611
M Bobek, "On the Application of European Law in (Not Only) the Courts of the New Member States: 'Don't Do as I Say'?" (2007-2008) 10 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 1
M Bobek, "Thou Shalt Have Two Masters; The Application of European Law by Administrative Authorities in the New Member States" (2008) 1 (1) Review of European Administrative Law 51
M Bobek, "The Binding Force of Babel: The Enforcement of EC Law Unpublished in the Languages of the New Member States" (2006 - 2007) 9 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 43
M Bobek, "A New Legal Order, or a Non-existent one? Some (Early) Experience in the Application of EU Law in Central Europe" (2006) 2 Croatian Yearbook of European Law and Policy 265
Book chapters (selection)
M Bobek, "Of Feasibility and Silent Elephants: The Legitimacy of the Court of Justice through the Eyes of National Courts". Forthcoming in Maurice Adams, Johan Meeusen, Gert Straetmans and Henri de Waele (eds), Judging Europe’s Judges: The Legitimacy of the Case Law of the European Court of Justice Examined (Oxford, Hart, 2013)
M Bobek, "The Impact of the European Mandate of Ordinary Courts on the Position of Constitutional Courts" in de Visser, M., Van De Heyning, C. (eds.), Constitutional Conversations in Europe (Cambridge, Intersentia, 2012)
M Bobek, "Report on the Czech Republic" in Laffranque, J. (ed.), Protection of Fundamental Rights post-Lisbon: The Interaction between the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and National Constitutions. Reports of the XXV FIDE Congress. (Tallinn, University of Tartu Press, 2012)
M Bobek, "Why There is No Principle of “Procedural Autonomy” of Member States", in B de Witte and H Micklitz (eds.), The European Court of Justice and the Autonomy of the Member States (Cambridge, Intersentia 2011)
M Bobek, "Multilingualism of European Union Law in the National Courts: Beyond the Textbooks", in A L Kjær and S Amato (eds.), Language Diversity and European Democracy (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2011)
M Bobek and D Kosař, "Report on the Czech Republic and Slovakia", in G Martinico and O Pollicino (eds.), The National Judicial Treatment of the ECHR and EU Laws (Groningen, Europa Law Publishing, 2010)
M Bobek and Z Kühn, "What About That “Incoming Tide”? the Application of EU Law in the Czech Republic", in A Lazowski (ed.), The Application of EU Law in the New Member States - Brave New World (The Hague, TMC Asser Press, 2010)
M Bobek and Z Kühn, "Europe Yet to Come; the Application of EU Law in Slovakia", in A Lazowski (ed.), The Application of EU Law in the New Member States - Brave New World (The Hague, TMC Asser Press, 2010)
M Bobek, "The New European Judges and the Limits of the Possible", in A Lazowski (ed.), The Application of EU Law in the New Member States - Brave New World (The Hague, TMC Asser Press, 2010)
M Bobek, "Reasonableness in Administrative Law: A Comparative Reflection on Functional Equivalence", in G Bongiovanni, G Sartor, and C Valentini (eds.), Reasonableness and Law (New York, Springer, 2009)
M Bobek, "Iudex ex Machina: Institutional and Mental Transitions of Central European Judiciaries", in R Coman and J-M de Waele (eds.), Judicial Reforms in Central and Eastern European Countries (Brugges, Vanden Broele, 2007)
Case notes (selection)
M Bobek, "Joined Cases C-92/09 and C-93/09, Volker und Markus Schecke GbR and Hartmut Eifert, judgement of the Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) of 9 November 2010", (2011) 48 Common Market Law Review 2005
M Bobek, "Cartesio - Appeals Against an Order to Refer under Article 234 (2) EC Treaty Revisited" (2010) 29 (3) Civil Justice Quarterly 307
M Bobek, "Case C-345/06, Gottfried Heinrich, judgement of the Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) of 10 March 2009" (2009) 46 (6) Common Market Law Review 2077
Interests
Teaching: European Union Law
Research: European Union law; Comparative public law; Human rights law
Other details
Correspondence address:
Institute of European and Comparative Law
St Cross Building, St Cross Road, Oxford OX1 3UL
