A book dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Constitutional Court published

13.06.2017.

Book “Judicial activism of the Constitutional Court in a Democratic State” has been published in honour of the previous year – that of the Constitutional Court’s anniversary. In May 2016 the Constitutional Court held a conference with the same title, it gathered representatives of constitutional courts from a number of European countries.

The book symbolically begins with a foreword by the first President of the Constitutional Court Aivars Endziņš. It is followed by an overview of the most important events in the history of the Constitutional Court, as well as a conversation between the former Presidents of the Constitutional Court about the Court from its origins up to the present.

Opening addresses given at the Conference by the President of the State Raimonds Vējonis, representative of the Council of Europe Commission “Democracy through Law” (the Venice Commission) Tanja Gerwien, as well as the former President of the Constitutional Court Aldis Laviņš are included in the edition. The largest part of the book comprises 15 presentations on experience of various countries in connection with manifestations of judicial activism in rulings by the Constitutional Court.

Judicial activism is such actions by a court that reach into the area of other branches of state power, in particular that of the legislator. Such actions can be assessed negatively or positively, depending upon whether the court has abided by the principle of separation of state power. On the one hand, this principle envisages that each branch of state power should operate only within its own field. However, on the other hand, this principle also requires mutual checks-and-balances between the branches of state power. Therefore, in exercising this control, in exceptional cases it is admissible that one branch of power reaches into the field of another branch. Since admissibility of such cases is not unequivocal, they need to be discussed. To this end the Constitutional Court organised the conference of its anniversary year, findings expressed in it are now collected in a book.

Ineta Ziemele, the President of the Constitutional Court, states: “Before the Constitutional Court was established, there were extensive political and scientific discussions in the State on the most appropriate model of constitutional justice for Latvia and on whether the Constitutional Court was not going to threaten the legislator’s power. Over time, the Court has directed legal thought in Latvia in a target way, promoting development of this state into a state governed by the rule of law. Debate on limits of courts’ competence is relevant not only in this state. It is topical in all democratic states governed by the rule of law. The conference held last year, as well as the published conference papers on judicial activism serve as a proof to this.”

The authors of papers included in the edition: former President of the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria, member of the Venice Commission Evgeni Tanchev, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Belgium, Honorary Member of the Council of State Pierre Nihoul, former President of the European Court of Human Rights, Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union Dean Spielmann, Vice-president of the Constitutional Court of Portugal Maria Lucia Amaral, Justice of the Constitutional Court of Lithuanian Gediminas Mesonis, President of the Court of Justice of the European Union Koenraad Lenaerts, Judge of the German Federal Constitutional Court Gabriele Britz, President of the Constitutional Court of Austria Gerhart Holzinger, Vice-president of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia Sanita Osipova, President of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Yurii Baulin, Vice-president of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia Jadranka Sovdat, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus Natallia Karpovich, Member of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia Arevik Petrosyan, Judge of the Chamber of Constitutional Review of the Estonian Supreme Court Peter Roosma, Judge of the Romanian Constitutional Court Valentin Zoltan Puskas and his assistant Karoly Benke.

All articles included in the edition have been published both in Latvian and in English. The book is not for sale, but is available to all interested parties in electronic format.

Electronic version of the book is available here:
The first part: Book_Judicial activism of the Constitutional Court in a Democratic State_part_1_ENG
The second part: Book_Judicial activism of the Constitutional Court in a Democratic State_part_2_ENG