The Justices of the Constitutional Court and the French Minister for Justice discuss recent developments in the field of constitutional law

02.03.2018.

Today, on 2 March, in the framework of the official visit to France, the President of the Constitutional Court Ineta Ziemele, the Vice-president of the Constitutional Court Sanita Osipova, the Justice of the Constitutional Court Aldis Laviņš, as well as the Ambassador of Latvia to France Imants Lieģis met with the Minister for Justice of France Nicole Belloubet.

During the visit, recent developments in constitutional law were discussed, emphasizing the understanding of constitutional identity in both countries. The Justices of the Constitutional Court told in greater detail about the discourse on constitutional identity in Latvia, whereas the French Minister for Justice provided an insight into this matter from the perspective of the French legal science. The parties agreed that, although each country had its own constitutional identity, the Member States of the European Union had also a common European identity, based on shared values.

During the conversation, the Justices of the Constitutional Court provided a more extensive insight also in the work of the Constitutional Court in 2017, highlighting the most important rulings by the Constitutional Court in the previous year in the findings expressed in these. The French Minister for Justice, in turn, informed those present about extensive reforms in the field of justice in France that she had begun to work on upon entering the Minister’s office. She noted that the reforms would cover both the planned constitutional reform and optimisation of the civil procedure, as well as introducing a new penal policy. Other issues related to the legal systems of both countries also were discussed, including aspects linked to the constitutional jurisdiction.

As reported before, the Justices of the Constitutional Court paid an official visit to France from 28 February to 2 March. The visit is organised in the framework of cooperation between the Constitutional Court of Latvia and the Council of State of France, which began in 2016 when the 12^th Conference of ESIL (European Society of International Law – ESIL) was held in Riga.

During the visit, the delegation of the Constitutional Court met with the judges of the Constitutional Court and the Cassation Court of France, as well as visited the Embassy of Latvia to France, where the delegation was welcomed by the Ambassador of Latvia to France Imants Lieģis. Today the visit will conclude with two working sessions at the Council of State of France. Jean Marc Sauvé, the Vice-President of the Council of State of France, and several members of the Council of State of France will participate in the working sessions. The issues of the constitutional review of the state budget will be discussed in one of the sessions. In the framework of this session, presentations will be given by the Justice of the Constitutional Court Jānis Neimanis and Bernard Pêcheur, the Head of the Administrative Department of the Council of State, providing an insight into the practice of each state in examining these issues. Whereas during the second working session, issues related to protection of fundamental human rights in the digital age will be discussed. In this session, presentations will be given by the Justice of the Constitutional Court and Laurent Cytermann, a member of the Council of State of France.