JUDr. Josef Baxa
(* 1959)

Josef Baxa graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University, Praha. In 1984 he became a criminal judge of the District Court in Plzeň, later on of the Regional Court in Plzeň; he was appointed as its Vice-President in the spring of 1990. In the nineties of the last century, he contributed to the establishment of the Faculty of Law at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň (Západočeská univerzita v Plzni). He has been teaching criminal law there ever since. From 1998 to 2002 he held the position of the first Deputy Minister of Justice – he was working successively for the following Ministers: Otakar Motejl, Jaroslav Bureš and Pavel Rychetský. He participated in drafting and the enforcement of the "major amendment" to the Criminal Procedure Code as well as in the creation of a new institutional and procedural framework of administrative justice. In January 2003 the President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel appointed him President of the Supreme Administrative Court. He was the first President of the Supreme Administrative Court till September 2018. He was the long-standing presiding judge of the Grand Chaber and Editorial Board of the Collection of Decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court. His publications focus primarily on procedural regulations. In his numerous public appearances, he focuses on critical analysis of the functioning of the judiciary and its possible reforms.