Róbert Dobrovodský
Dr. Róbert Dobrovodský, LL. M. (Tübingen) (born 1982 in Slovakia) – Legal Protection of Older People
is an associate professor at the Institute for Civil and Commercial Law of the Faculty of Law at the University of Trnava (Trnavská univerzita, Právnická fakulta) (Slovakia) and he is known in the field of Slovak civil law, family law as well in the field consumer protection through relevant publications in Slovakia and abroad. As a legislation expert, he worked for the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic during more than eleven years and he was responsible for private, family and consumer protection law legislation. At the Ministry he was also responsible as legislative expert for Act on Free Access to Information. He chaired ministerial appeal advice committee for cases of Act on Free Access to Information.
During the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union (July – December 2016) he worked as Chairman of Working Party on Civil Law Matters (JUSTCIV) and negotiated two Directives: Directive (EU) 2019/770 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services and the Directive (EU) 2019/771 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the sale of goods, amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC. In July 2017 he researched The Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg (Germany). Since June 2020 he is a member of the Legislative Council of the Slovak Government (Legislatívna rady vlády Slovenskej republiky) and since September 2020 a member of the Committee for Law Creation Constitutional Law (Komisia pre tvorbu práva) belonging to the Constitutional Law Committee of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (Ústavnoprávny výbor Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky). As a scholar of German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD) he obtained the title Magister legum (LL.M.) at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (Germany). He also spent one year as host researcher at University of Basel, Faculty of Law (Switzerland) supported financially by Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships for Foreign Scholars and Artists (Die Eidgenössische Stipendienkommission für ausländische Studierende – ESKAS). For a long time he represented the Slovak Republic as a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Children’s Rights and as a member of the Commission for European Family Law in Utrecht. As a founding member, is a member of the Expert Commission for Family Law (Family Law in Europe: Academic Network) based at the University of Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). The Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic and the Journal called Justičná revue have awarded him by the Karol Plank Award for Student Publications. Since 2008 he is an expert member of Vienna working circle – Research Center for European Legal Development and Private Law Reform (Forschungsstelle für Europäische Rechtsentwicklung und Privatrechtsreform, University of Vienna, Faculty of Law). As a national expert from Slovakia he worked at following projects or expert groups: 1) Steering Group meeting study to collect data on children’s involvement in justice (European Commission) 2) Empowering European Families – Towards more party autonomy in European family and succession law (University of Vienna) 3) Negotiation for Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 295/91 (Council of the European Union, Working Party on Aviation), 4) Negotiation Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information (Council of the European Union, Working Part; European Commission).