inhabitant, in case of a family house, but also the municipality, municipal district or their specific organization or a housing co-operative or some other company (especially if some office or industrial object is concerned). Owners of large buildings or building complexes generally have mechanized snow-removal equipment, but individual house owners mostly clean the sidewalk with hand tools. One example of the longstanding debate over the obligation of snow removal comes from the Czech Republic. In Prague, evidence of such a duty is documented since 1838. The decree of the government of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia No. 1/1943 Sb. said that sidewalk cleaning in residential areas of municipalities with more than 5000 inhabitants, of district cities and of other specified municipalities is a duty of the owner or user of the contiguous land. The municipality was empowered to undertake this duty at the expense of the contiguous land owner. The Czechoslovak Road Act No. 135/1961 Sb. (§23) adopted such legal regulations for all municipalities, but municipality offices could modify them. The new Road Act of the Czech Republic, No. 13/1997 Sb. (§9 art. 4) left this enactment in place and stated that maintenance of a road, path, track etc. is an obligation of its owner without any exception. Despite this, §27 art. 4 attached to the owner of contiguous land the liability for harm caused by defects of cleaning. In its 2002 and 2003 annual reports, the Czech Public Defender of Rights made a claim for there being a discrepancy between the theoretical and the practical interpretations of the act and recommended that an unequivocal formulation be enacted. This discrepancy was repeatedly handled by the courts, and the Supreme Administrative Court on 27 June 2005 and the Constitutional Court on 3 January 2007 each stated that the cleaning duty results indirectly from the stated liability for harm. Those who impugn the duty argued that it is a residue of feudal corvée or of the totalitarian Nazi and communist regimes, that nowadays, compulsory labour mandated by law is in conflict with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms and that systematic municipal cleaning is more effective than cleaning by individuals. On 6 December 2007, the Senate of the Czech Republic proposed at the instance of its Constitutional Committee to remove the controversial article from §27 of the Road Act of 1997. The Czech Government gave support to it by