Abstract
Service of process amounts when performed to crucial consequences for parties to the dispute and the court. Substituted service of documents should be an exception.
Thus, there are fundamental questions which can be understood as essential problems of the beginning of a legal process. The article predominantly introduces comparative and historical premises of the substituted service, it explains which questions are universal and indeed need new answers, taking into the account present opportunities of technology and the state of society.
The present state is analysed on de facto and de lata level in the Czech Republic, it is noted that substituted service is not an exception, quantitatively speaking. The actual notice doctrine stemming from the Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure is analysed in the next part of the article, taking into the account Czech conditions.
The substituted service is furthermore analysed from historical and comparative perspective (England, France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia), including European and constitutional perspective. This analysis brings about impulses for de lege ferenda reflections.
Thereafter the article deals with these impulses for substituted service in case of a natural person (which is not being an entrepreneur). A supplementary use of electronic means for actual notice is then analysed as well as their further involvement in the substituted service.