conventional short form: Slovakia
local long form: Slovenska Republika
local short form: Slovensko
Government type: parliamentary democracy
Capital: Bratislava
Administrative divisions: 8 regions (kraje, singular - kraj);
Banskobystricky, Bratislavsky, Kosicky, Nitriansky, Presovsky,
Trenciansky, Trnavsky, Zilinsky
Independence: 1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into the Czech
Republic and Slovakia)
National holiday: Constitution Day, 1 September (1992)
Constitution: ratified 1 September 1992, fully effective 1 January 1993; changed in September 1998 to allow direct election of the president; amended February 2001 to allow Slovakia to apply for NATO and EU membership
Legal system: civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; legal code modified to comply with the obligations of Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to expunge Marxist-Leninist legal theory