Final Word from Monday, December 12, 2016
How will Andrej Babiš circumvent the new conflict-of-interest law after it takes effect in Jan. or Feb.? Will he seek a preliminary injunction and then a Constitutional Court ruling? Babiš's own LN gave a clue on Sat., when it wrote that the Constitutional Court has repeatedly denied retroactivity and that Babiš considers it a retroactive violation of his rights for a ban on government business by Agrofert to take effect during this term in office. If Babiš convinced the Constitutional Court that his rights as an individual are violated because his company faces a changed competitive environment, it would open the door for any minister or lawmaker who owns shares in any company in competition with Agrofert. They could argue that the invoice-matching and EET laws are a retroactive violation of their privacy under the Bill of Rights. They took office long before anyone started requiring their companies to send sensitive business information to Babiš. [Czech Republic online sales-reporting]
Glossary of difficult words
to circumvent - to find a way around (an obstacle);
injunction - a judicial order restraining a person from beginning or continuing an action threatening or invading the legal right of another;
retroactive - (legislation) operative with respect to past occurrences; taking effect from a date in the past.