The ceremony took place in the Great Hall of Karel Engliš on Thursday, 2 October. “If our democracy is flawed, we must overcome the flaws – not democracy itself,” said Jiří Hanuš, the MU vice-rector for personnel policy and academic and cultural affairs, quoting the words of the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk as he opened the traditional academic ceremony.
For his outstanding contribution to research, education and social progress, the Faculty of Education nominated Christian Hanus, a renowned expert in cultural heritage, environmental protection and historic conservation, and an adviser to both UNESCO and the Austrian government regarding world heritage sites, to receive the honorary degree. The MU Scientific Board also accepted the nomination by the Faculty of Law to award an honorary degree to Leonard Etel, a leading European expert in financial and tax law who has helped shape Polish tax legislation and supports the implementation of European standards in public financial management beyond EU borders.
“Professor Hanus and Professor Etel are among the very best in their fields, with significant international impact,” said MU Rector Martin Bareš during the ceremony, adding: “The honorary doctorates are awarded today in recognition of their lifelong dedication and outstanding achievements in education and financial law and as a token of our gratitude for their important contribution to the development of these disciplines at Masaryk University.
Christian Hanus: cultural heritage and Scola Telcz
Professor Christian Hanus is a leading global expert in cultural heritage, environmental protection, historic conservation and construction, with a special focus on architecture and engineering. Since 2007, he has been associated with Danube University Krems, where he founded and led several research centres devoted to architectural heritage, conservation of cultural monuments and environmental protection.
He has headed numerous national and international research projects, including the European Heritage Awards Archive, and is an active member of Europa Nostra Austria and the Committee for Industrial and Technical Heritage. His expertise has earned him advisory roles with UNESCO and the Austrian government on world heritage sites, including their evaluation. Recently, his research laboratory Sustainable Architectural Heritage (Nachhaltiges Baukulturelles Erbe) has gained international recognition for examining the parameters of preserving, using and developing built cultural heritage from a sustainability perspective.
“The research, educational and cultural activities of Professor Hanus overlap with those of Masaryk University. One of the most significant areas of collaboration has been the conservation of cultural heritage, particularly through the interdisciplinary project Scola Telcz, aimed at protecting and developing the historic town centre of Telč,” explained Simona Koryčánková, dean of the Faculty of Education, and added: “Scola Telcz is a collaborative project of several Czech and Slovak research institutions who organise international, multidisciplinary summer and winter week-long courses for students in the historic setting of Telč.
Together with Masaryk University, Christian Hanus has been involved in lifelong learning initiatives and university-of-the-third-age programmes. He contributed to the ComPaRe project, which focused on participatory reconstruction of urban structures and led to the creation of an educational programme. Further joint activities included the 2018 and 2019 Interreg projects exploring the potential of shared cultural heritage for cross-border regional development and a project led by the University Centre Telč and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice focused on cross-border mediation of cultural heritage.
“Receiving the title doctor honoris causa fills me with deep gratitude, humility and great joy – especially because of my long-standing relationship with Masaryk University, which has included joint research and teaching projects, cooperation and membership in the university’s bodies. It has been an invaluable source of academic, professional and collegial enrichment, and a cornerstone of my own professional and personal growth. I would like to highlight particularly the creation of Scola Telcz, an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary school dedicated to the preservation and development of UNESCO World Heritage sites, using the historic centre of Telč as a case study,” said Professor Christian Hanus.
Leonard Etel: the future of tax law
Professor Leonard Etel is one of Europe’s foremost experts in financial and tax law. For many years, he held senior positions at the Faculty of Law of the University of Białystok, where he also served as rector. His academic interests are closely linked to the broad field of financial law, with a particular focus on local government finances. Three key areas stand out in his work – property taxation, local taxes and fees, and the creation of local tax legislation by municipal authorities.
Thanks to his expertise, Leonard Etel has become a respected figure not only in academia but also among legal practitioners. Both he and his department received recognition from the Polish Ministry of Finance for their contribution to shaping the reform of general tax law. Beyond his academic achievements, he was listed among the 50 most influential Polish lawyers by the Polish newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, and in October 2024, the Minister of Finance awarded him the Badge of Merit in Public Finance of the Republic of Poland.
“Professor Etel’s research in local government finance also includes his role in establishing institutions such as the Centre for Information and Organisation of Public Finance and Tax Law Research in Central and Eastern Europe,” noted Martin Škop, the dean of the Faculty of Law. “Since its founding in 2002, he served first as the centre’s vice-president and now as its president. The centre’s aim is to gather and share information about the research activities of its members, inspire joint studies and organise academic conferences – often in cooperation with public authorities and non-governmental organisations. Under his leadership, the centre helped implement European standards of public financial management as well as the principles of democracy and the rule of law in countries outside the EU.”
In his compelling lecture Why Don’t We Understand Tax Law?, Leonard Etel addressed the issue of outdated property valuation and pointed out that the reform of the tax system established in the 1990s remains incomplete. “In Poland – and the same applies to the Czech Republic – there is no clear model of what the tax system should ultimately look like. In the absence of this vision, every government adjusts the system to its immediate needs and calls these changes reforms. But to reform something, you need a strategy, you have to say: this is the goal, and to achieve it, we must do this, this and this. There is no such strategy, which leads to frequent changes of the existing tax regulations and the introduction of new ones, often simply to appease the taxpayers – that is, voters, to follow the example of another country, or just to be able to show that something is being done. It is often hard to see any logic behind these shifts,” he explained.
The ceremony concluded with a musical performance by Dominika Svozilová (harp) and Zdeněk Svozil (violin), who played works by Gaetano Donizetti and Astor Piazzolla.