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On 22 January 2026, Charles University awarded Professor Reinhard Bork, who supports research activities of academics at the Faculty of Law at Charles University, and Professor Jan Deprest, who collaborates with CU’s Third Faculty of Medicine, honorary doctorates.
Reinhard Bork’s alma mater is the University of Münster, where he completed his legal training and obtained his doctorate. He then served as a professor at the University of Bonn and at the University of Hamburg, where he headed the Department of Civil Procedure and General Procedural Law for more than 30 years. Beside his involvement in numerous prestigious academic and legal institutions, he also served as a judge at the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg and was a visiting professor at National Taiwan University and Kyoto University. Prof. Bork’s research interests include civil law, civil procedural law, and insolvency law.
Reinhard Bork’s close ties with the Faculty of Law of Charles University, with him supporting research activities of academics from CU, have been established in the early 1990s. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, he played a key role in the German-led lecture program, which was established as part of a partnership between the universities in Prague and Hamburg, and gave numerous lectures there. He has also been a member of the editorial board of the Faculty of Law’s academic journal Acta Universitatis Carolinae Iuridica.
In his speech, Professor Bork mentioned “the emperor of the sword, but also of the pen” Charles IV and his contributions to Prague, a city “he made golden”. These naturally include founding what Prof. Bork called one of the world’s most prestigious universities. In light of this “tremendous honour”, he recalled his lectures in the Faculty of Law’s German law programme as well as the hospitality and respect he received from students, colleagues and the institution itself – one that, he emphasised, has always nurtured relations with foreign schools. And he himself professed a feeling of “deep professional and personal connection to the Faculty of Law”, to which he will soon return to lecture. Thanking the Rector Milena Králíčková, Spectabilis Dean of the Faculty of Law Radim Boháč, his family, but also the musicians of the Carolinum for the award and ceremony, he reminded the auditorium that “respect should not be earned by virtue of office, but by virtue of achievement”.
Jan Deprest has devoted his professional life to research in the field of gynaecology and obstetrics, making fundamental contributions to our understanding of the etiopathogenesis of pathological conditions in women and fetuses and their treatment. Professor Deprest’s work has inspired many experts in the diagnosis and treatment of fetal diseases, fetal surgery, and female pelvic floor pathologies. Professor Deprest’s home institution is the Catholic University of Leuven (UC Leuven) and its University Hospital in Leuven. He is currently the head of the Department of Development and Regeneration and the director of the Centre for Surgical Technologies. He also collaborates with University College London and University College Hospitals as a consultant and fetal surgeon in the fetal surgery program for spina bifida and congenital diaphragmatic hernia.
The beginning of the collaboration with the Third Faculty of Medicine of Charles University dates back to 2009, when a new department was established at the perinatal centre to address complications in identical twins. The department is located at the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Clinic of the Third Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and the Institute for the Care of Mother and Child; it is the only one of its kind in the Czech Republic. Recently, UC Lovain and CU 3RD MED also began collaborating on doctoral studies under joint supervision; three doctoral projects have already been successfully completed, and two are continuing. The collaboration has contributed significantly to the education of young researchers.
Prof. Deprest, in his speech, also declared the founding of Charles University – one with a faculty of medicine in the mid-14th century – a “visionary decision”, and named important figures from Jan Jesenius (1566–1621) to physician Vladimír Vonka, eminent virologist who passed away only last year. Turning to his own field of expertise, Prof. Deprest pointed out how until fairly recently, cervical cancer used to have a mortality of 70%. The paradigm shift, he continued, came with the identification of the cause, i. e., the human papillomavirus. Charles University then was among those who led the effort to develop screening and prevention methods through vaccination. Obstetric haemorrhage is another major cause of maternal mortality. Here, again, an effort is currently led by the Institute for Mother and Child Care in Prague-Podolí, which has for the last 25 years been collaborating with CU’s Third Faculty of Medicine. Prof. Deprest holds the Podolí clinic in the highest esteem, and in this particular endeavour, mentioned Prof. Ladislav Krofta and Associate Professor Jaroslav Feyereisl’s significant contributions to timely recognition and fast treatment of OB haemorrhage.
Still, Prof. Deprest feels that “we are now living in a golden age of obstetrics” – and to this, he owes to aforementioned breakthroughs including the development of ultrasound technology, “which meant that the fetus was recognised as a patient in the entire process”, or the advancement of light-weight camera endoscopy. All of these, once groundbreaking inventions, are now among standard equipment across the world, helping mothers and newborn children in ways previously unthinkable. And as Prof. Deprest stressed again, Charles University has been, and still is, at the forefront of these efforts, contributing with major development and tangible results.
Story by: Jan Borek
Photos by: Michal Novotný