Mission Regarding the subject of our activity, the Institute’s principal mission, as defined in the Institute’s Statute, is to conduct basic legal research, contribute to disseminating and applying its results and promote the development of research resources. Within its activity, the institute develops international cooperation, holds conferences, seminars and collaborates with other institutions and, in particular, universities. The institute has an independent legal status and is part of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In any case, the scope of activities of the institute is considerably broader and is not reduced only to the development of scientific publications. Activities The institute provides professional public with scientific opinions and studies. This activity is performed in compliance to the institute’s organizational rules, usually on the basis of written applications and after careful consideration. The institute also pursues editorial activity. It publishes three journals. It also publishes monographs, both printed and electronic. The institute’s flagship is the peer-reviewed journal for issues of the state and the law ‘Právník’ (in English Lawyer), which is being published continuously since 1861 and comes out twelve times a year. “Právník” is the oldest legal periodical published in the Czech Republic a one of the oldest legal periodical of the World. Moreover, the institute publishes the peer-reviewed journal The Lawyer Quarterly (“TLQ”) which comes out four times a year, is published in English and is freely available in electronic form. The youngest journal is the purely electronic Medical Law & Bioethics Journal. The institute was established in November 1955. Gradually, the institute has evolved into one of the main and traditional centres of basic research in the sphere of law in the Czech Republic. It is the oldest and currently the only centre of non-university legal research in our country.