He was born on 19 August 1934 in Prague. He is married and has one son.
       In 1958 he graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. Between 1958 and 1960 he worked as a lawyer in an industrial company. In 1960 he became a civil law judge, after 1966 a judge of the Regional Court (court of appeal). During the Prague Spring in 1968 he was a co-founder of the opposition non-communist political movement, the Club of Committed Non-Party Members. For this reason he had to resign his judicial office.
       In 1971-1981 he again worked as a lawyer in an industrial company, specializing in labor law. After democracy was restored in Czechoslovakia in 1989-1990, he started to work at the Ministry of Justice as a director of the division for compensation (judicial rehabilitation). He also acted as an advisor to the Chairwoman of the Czech National Council (Parliament of the Czech Republic), on a permanent basis after 1991. His work concentrated in particular on the problem of relations between the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. He was appointed a Justice of the Constitutional Court of the CSFR on 31 January 1992. After the dissolution of the CSFR he was an advisor to the Attorney General of the Czech Republic.
       President Vaclav Havel appointed him a Justice of the Constitutional Court on 15 July 1993.