Ustanovení

Ustanovení is a Czech and Slovak noun with two main meanings in modern usage. It can denote a specific provision, clause, or stipulation in a legal, regulatory, or contractual text. It can also refer to the act of establishing or appointing someone to a position or office. The word is formed from the verb ustanovit (to establish, to appoint) with the neuter noun suffix -ení; the Slovak cognate is ustanovenie.

In legal and administrative language, ustanovení are the numbered parts of statutes, contracts, regulations, or official documents that define rights, obligations, procedures, or rules. They specify how a law operates, what is permitted or prohibited, and under what conditions certain actions may be taken. In this sense, citations such as podle ustanovení zákona or v ustanovení smlouvy are common stylistic references in formal writing.

The other sense—appointment or establishment—appears in contexts describing the designation of a person to a post or the establishment of a body or office. Phrases like ustanovení ředitele or ustanovení výboru indicate the act by which an individual or entity is brought into a position or created as an entity within an organizational framework.

Usage notes: the meaning is usually inferred from context, with legal documents favoring the “provision” sense and administrative or organizational contexts favoring the “appointment/establishment” sense. The term is common in Czech and Slovak legal, governmental, and administrative prose and has parallels in other Slavic languages with similar roots.