EN
The author deals with the life and work of a Professor of Civil Law and Legal Philosophy at Charles University Emil Svoboda (1878-1948). Svoboda was extraordinary in his philosophical foundations, he related to Arthur Schopenhauer and to Masaryk’s humanism. He viewed the law from a sociological and psychological positions. He was convinced it was necessary to evaluate the law primarily ethically. Thus he found himself outside the legal dogmatics that dominated the legal discourse at that time. As a convinced democrat, Republican and supporter of freedom, he served the Czechoslovak Republic. He helped to establish a law school in Bratislava (1919), he was involved in preparing the curriculum of the Civil Code. After experiencing the crisis of democracy, the Nazi occupation of the Czech lands and the world war, he was tempted by the vision of a post-war ideas of better world. He died before the Communists in Czechoslovakia confused the fulfilment of the ideals of socialism for state terror, and did not get so disappointed in his hopes.