To mark the centenary of the Latvian National Library, the Constitutional Court organises a discussion with the readers “Is everything that hurts fundamental rights?”
On Saturday, 31 August, the discussion organised by the Constitutional Court “Is everything that hurts fundamental rights?” to mark the centenary of the Library was held at the Latvian National Library. It was moderated by Vice-president of the Constitutional Court professor Sanita Osipova, Lauris Liepa, the leading partner of the law office “COBALT” and Aidis Tomsons, a journalist from Latvian Radio 1, participated in the discussion.
During the discussion, answers were sought to the following questions: what fundamental human rights were, when infringements on them occur, and when a restriction on fundamental rights could have a legitimate aim, whether it is easy for a person to defend his or her fundamental rights in Latvia. Sanita Osipova underscored that contemporary society was changing very rapidly and people tended to formalise their everyday relationships, although quite often mundane disputes could be resolved through conversation and sharing of thoughts. As regards restricting fundamental rights, advocate Lauris Liepa reminded that Article 116 of the Satversme clearly defined the cases when human rights could be restricted, i.e., to protect the rights of other persons, democratic state order, public security, welfare and morals. Lauris Liepa mentioned as one of the possible future situations, where Article 116 of the Satversme could be used for the benefit of general society, transferring the data acquired by major information technology companies for public use. Upon adopting a norm that restricts a person’s fundamental rights, the legislator should always consider, whether the benefit that society gains as the result of restricting a person’s fundamental rights will outweigh the loss caused to an individual.
Journalist Aidis Tomsons emphasised that people needed to feel that the restriction on fundamental rights was fair. In continuing the discussion as to how easy it was to protect one’s right in the Latvian judicial system, Aidis Tomsons expressed the opinion that, notwithstanding legal assistance guaranteed by the Ombudsman’s Office and the Legal Aid Administration, for people it was quite often difficult to achieve protection of their rights due to lengthy legal proceedings. In his opinion, improving the effectiveness of legal proceedings should be seriously considered, which was also mentioned in the discussion thus far by Lauris Liepa.
Vice-president of the Constitutional Court professor Sanita Osipova, Lauris Liepa, the leading partner of the law office “COBALT” and Aidis Tomsons, a journalist from Latvian Radio 1. Foto: Archive of the Constitutional Court
In concluding the discussion, President of the Constitutional Court Ineta Ziemele explained to the participants that, in the European legal space, the criteria that a potential submitter of a constitutional court had to meet, were not that different or complicated. She was of the opinion that usually people were most afraid of the legal reasoning that had to be provided upon submitting an application. However, the Constitutional Court expected the applicant to substantiate in the legal reasoning the way in which the contested norm placed disproportional restrictions on his or her fundamental rights.
While preparing for this discussion, the Constitutional Court published in its Twitter account @Satv_tiesa a survey, asking people to express their opinion on, to their mind, the most important fundamental rights referred to in Chapter VIII of the Satversme. The results allow concluding that the respondents considered the right to equality before the law and the court, as well as the right to a fair trial, established in Article 91 and Article 92 of the Satversme, as being the most important. The right to freedom and inviolability of a person, guaranteed in Article 94 of the Satversme, ranked third in the poll.
In conclusion, assistant to a Justice of the Constitutional Court Eva Vīksna and secretary consultant Kristiāna Plāte informed the audience about information available on the homepage of the Constitutional Court and news.