Northern (N): Czechoslovakia (NC). Judicial System

A file of correspondence concerning the Czechoslovak legal system. The correspondence reports on a press interview with the new Slovak Commissioner for Justice, Petr Colotka, in which he discussed the Czechoslovak legal system. The new commissioner lays the blame for the failings of the legal system on its organisation, criticising a decision to remove the system of investigating judges in favour of leaving decisions in the hands of the Ministry of the Interior. He also criticised the failure to include the "presumption of innocence" status in earlier penal codes, which had led to a number of abuses.