Transformations and expectation of the debt relief institute in the Czech Republic

The focal point of the doctoral thesis resides in the exploration of mechanisms employed by individuals to resolve their insolvency situations. This subject matter is approached through three interrelated perspectives, converging to yield an innovative understanding of the nature, effectiveness, and fundamental inquiries associated with debt relief. The dissertation scrutinizes three theses and three research questions, with the inaugural research question delving into the developmental trajectory and intrinsic nature of debt relief. Insights derived from this phase of the dissertation subsequently inform the exploration of additional research questions. Within the context of the evolution of the earliest Western civilizations, the dissertation articulates the historical prevalence of indebtedness within a significant segment of the population, a phenomenon recurring periodically throughout the development of civilizations. Analogous to contemporary circumstances, this issue initially manifested as an economic and legal interaction between debtor and creditor. However, when a critical portion of the population faced insolvency or a situation proximate to it, the phenomenon posed a threat to the political stability of the entire state, with the political and social ramifications taking precedence. Historically and contemporarily, a combination of measures, comprising one-time reliefs and structural systemic changes impacting the future, has been employed in response to this situation. Across various civilizations, cyclic patterns emerged, ranging from stringent accountability for debts, such as life, personal freedom, and all property, to a gradual narrowing of the debtor's responsibility. Despite certain modifications over millennia, the essence of debt relief remains fundamentally unchanged, grounded in comparable mechanisms. In the context of a situation where a substantial portion of the population is insolvent, debt relief has historically and presently served not only an economic but also a social function. The social function, in terms of societal stability, often surpasses the economic function, particularly with the escalating proportion of the population facing insolvency. The second research question centers on the effectiveness of the mechanisms scrutinized in the first question. Evaluation of the effectiveness of these legal norms is complicated by their dual economic and social impacts. Given the challenge of capturing the social aspect through tools of economic legal analysis, an alternative approach utilizing the goal-results oriented concept of legal effectiveness is deemed most suitable. Consequently, the dissertation assesses the extent to which a legal norm achieves its intended goal. The scrutinized legal norms are presented in the form of permission modalities, with the understanding that such norms are used not universally but selectively to a portion of the potential addressees. To deduce this proportion, integral to the goal of the legal norm, a novel modified formula of the results-oriented method is introduced in the dissertation. This method is subsequently employed to analyze and compare the effectiveness of debt relief and the legal institute of Jubilee year. The third research question is devoted to investigating whether a more stringent regulation of debt relief for non-business individuals compared to regulations for business individuals aligns with the principles of private law. Methodologically, the dissertation elucidates distinctions between legal principles, legal norms, and legal rules. Subsequent to this clarification, an analysis of individual key principles of private law is conducted to ascertain the conformity of distinct regulations for debt relief for business and non-business individuals with these principles.