President signs private international law legislation

Prague, Feb 13 (CTK) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus signed yesterday private international law legislation setting new rules to cross-border disputes and replacing a 50-year-old legislation, his spokesman Radim Ochvat has announced.

The new code is to take effect in 2014 together with the new civil code.

Under the new legislation, it will have to be stated which state's law will be applied to a concrete case and which bodies will deal with it.

The place of usual stay of a participant in the dispute will be given greater weight than to his/her nationality.

The new law also stipulates that it is not possible to apply foreign legislation if it were at contradiction to the Czech public order in the decision making.

It will not be possible to recognise another country's decision, an arbitration award or a legal relationship for the same reasons.

The new legislation states that foreigners and foreign firms have the same right to freedom of court fees just as their Czech counterparts where these conditions are reciprocal.

This reciprocity condition does not apply to EU citizens.

The Senate passed the law in January also by the opposition Social Democrats' (CSSD) votes. The CSSD originally wanted to adjourn the law's taking effect until 2016.