prof. Dr. JUDr. Karel Eliáš, dr. h. c.

Prof. Dr. JUDr. Karel Eliáš, Dr. h. c. (born 4 May 1955 in Cheb) is a senior research fellow at the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He is a legal scholar specializing in civil and commercial law, with additional interests in legal philosophy, history, and sociology. He graduated from the Grammar School in Karlovy Vary (1975) and from the Faculty of Law of Charles University (1979), receiving his Doctor of Laws degree in 1981.

After completing his legal studies, he worked in the corporate sector. On 1 January 1991, he became a research fellow at the Institute of State and Law of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Between 1993 and 2011, he taught at the Faculty of Law of the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň, where he headed the Department of Commercial Law, later the Department of Private Law, and eventually served as Vice-Dean for Science and Research. At Masaryk University in Brno, he completed his doctoral studies (1996), habilitation (1998), and professorial appointment procedure (2002), and was subsequently appointed associate professor and professor in his field. Since 2016, he has been teaching at the Faculty of Law of Trnava University in Trnava, where he has also participated in two grant-funded research projects.

Karel Eliáš is the author, co-author, or editor of some twenty monographs and several hundred journal articles. In 2000, he was appointed by Minister of Justice Otakar Motejl as the principal author of the draft of the new Civil Code; together with Associate Professor Michaela Zuklínová and other collaborators, he completed this work in 2012, when the Civil Code was enacted.

In addition to serving on the Academic Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Eliáš is a member of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Law of Palacký University in Olomouc. He is also a member of the Government Legislative Council. He serves as Chair of the Editorial Board of the theoretical legal journal Právník and is active on the editorial boards of four other peer‑reviewed journals.

Karel Eliáš has received numerous awards for his work. The most significant honours came in 2012, when he was inducted into the Legal Hall of Fame for his exceptional lifelong contribution to the law, and in 2026, when Palacký University in Olomouc awarded him the honorary academic title doctor honoris causa. In 2021, the Rector of Trnava University awarded him the Anton Hajduk Prize for outstanding achievements in scientific and research activities. For his contribution to the development of legal scholarship and education, and for his mentorship of young civil‑law scholars in Slovakia, the Štefan Luby Foundation awarded him a commemorative medal in 2023.