Regulation of cooling-off period, lobbying and acceptance of gifts as measures to prevent conflict of interest of public officials
Abstract
The article deals with selected institutes regulating directly or indirectly the conflict of interest of public officials, which are not present in the Czech legal system at all or only marginally: i) the cooling-off period and rules for ii) lobbying and iii) accepting gifts. In the introduction, the author defines the concept of conflict of interest, presents its different understanding in the literature and then treats it as a problem of decision-making on the rights, obligations or interests of non-participating individuals in the exercise of public power.
In the following text the author analyses the meaning and purpose of selected institutes in the legal system and offers a comparative view abroad. He concludes with a recommendation to the Czech legislator to consider adopting the new legislation and points out the advantages of such an approach in the context of cultivating the environment for the exercise of public functions and building public confidence in the proper exercise of public authority.