Biography
David Kosař (M.A. (Brno), LL.M. (CEU), J.S.D. (NYU)) is Professor of Constitutional Law and Director of the Judicial Studies Institute at Masaryk University in Brno. His current project (ERC Consolidator Grant) studies informal judicial institutions (“INFINITY – Informal Judicial Institutions: Invisible Determinants of Democratic Decay"). His previous project (ERC Starting Grant) studied the effects of judicial self-governance (JUDI-ARCH, 2016-2021). He authored “Perils of Judicial Self-Government in Transitional Societies” (CUP, 2016), which won the International Academy of Comparative Law Canada Prize for the best monograph in comparative law published in the years 2014-2017, co-authored “Domestic Judicial Treatment of European Court of Human Rights Case Law: Beyond Compliance” (Routledge, 2020) and “The Constitution of Czechia” (Hart, 2021). He co-edited special issues on “Judicial Self-Governance in Europe” (German Law Journal, 2018, Vol. 19, No. 7, pp. 1567-2188), “Informal Judicial Institutions” (German Law Journal, 2023, Vol. 24, No. 8, pp. 1239-1595) and “Chief Justices and Democratic Resilience” (International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2025, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 148-319). His article on "Comparative Court-Packing" (co-authored with Katarína Šipulová) won the ICON-S Best Article Prize 2024. David has also published in American Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, European Constitutional Law Review, Hague Journal of the Rule of Law, German Law Journal, Law & Policy, Law & Social Inquiry, Feminist Legal Studies, and Regulation & Governance. He is a member of the editorial boards of European Constitutional Law Review and German Law Journal and of several learned societies (ASIL, ESIL, LSA, ICON-S, ECPR). He served as the inaugural co-chair of ICON-S CEE Chapter (2018-2024). David’s research interests include constitutional theory, comparative public law, judicial studies, international human rights law, refugee law, and transitional justice.
David worked as a law clerk to several Judges and then to the Vice-President of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic, and later as a senior law clerk to Kateřina Šimáčková, Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic (currently a Judge and the Section President of the European Court of Human Rights). He was a member of the Advisory Committee of the ELI-Mount Scopus European Standards of Judicial Independence, serves as a regular consultant for the OSCE and the Council of Europe and, on ad hoc basis, advises governments in drafting judicial reforms. In 2023-2025, he served as a member of the advisory panel of the President of the Czech Republic concerning the nomination of Justices of the Czech Constitutional Court. He also serves as an appointed constitutional law expert in international investment arbitration.