Teoretická a ústavní východiska správního trestání

Theoretical and Constitutional Tenets of Administrative Sanctioning There has been a continuous increase in the scope of imposing administrative sanctions over the past decades. In particular, the corporate liability for administrative infractions and other administrative delicts has witnessed a dynamic expansion. Both theory and legislation have so far failed to define clear differentiation criteria to determine, whether a particular unlawful act has to be treated as a criminal offence or rather as an administrative delict. The present-day legal regulations of administrative delicts in Czech law are quite unsatisfactory. These regulations have been criticized due to their fragmentation, heterogeneity and inextricability. Above all, they fail to define basic concepts and institutes. The rates of penalties have been set down quite randomly, which contravenes the principle of proportionality between the sanction and the gravity of the offence. The procedural regulation of administrative sanctioning has also been considered dissatisfactory. The text further focuses on the constitutional guarantees that are of importance for the area of administrative sanctions. The author emphasizes the requirement for unambiguous legal definition of a delict (lex cetra). The prosecution of administrative infractions cannot be exempt from the constitutional principles of fair trial.