Speeches by the President of the Constitutional Court Aldis Laviņš during the Constitutional Court’s visit to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova
Chișinău, 15 – 17 June 2023
First meeting among Judges
Esteemed Colleagues,
I am genuinely happy that, amidst the current geo-political and other turbulences, we have succeeded in organising our meeting within such a short term – exactly three months ago, in Venice, after the meeting of the Bureau of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice, we heard about the initiative proposed by our Moldovan colleagues, and now we are already here.
Let’s be objective – these are very difficult times. However, the most remarkable thing is that, during this period we have cooperated even more frequently rather than less so. Situations of crisis repel the weak but unite the strong ones. The times of Russia’s aggression have become a uniting factor — we have found new form of cooperation, turning into influential players in the united family of global and European constitutional justice.
Through numerous joint actions, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia and the Constitutional Court of Moldova expressed solidarity with our Ukrainian colleagues and the whole Ukrainian nation. Out joint achievement is that the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation left the global and European community of constitutional justice.
Only by working together we succeeded in convincing many of our partners of cooperation not only in Europe but also in the whole world that the Russian Court, by approving the annexation of the Ukrainian territories, turned into “a machine for legitimising” the policy of the aggressive autocratic regime and was not even a court in the meaning of the Statute of these organisations. This is no longer a political matter, in which judicial bodies may not intervene, this is a matter of defending democracy and the rule of law.
Likewise, only thanks to our united position, the Latvian Constitutional Court was approved as a Member of the Bureau of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice. Thus, the Constitutional Courts of two small countries represent the interests of all European Constitutional Courts in the Bureau, ensuring transparent and comprehensive exchange of information and, through the submitted draft resolution, seek legal solutions to restore peace and international legal order. This confirms adherence to those values that we protect in our joint work.
In the framework of bilateral cooperation, we not only deal with matters of global scope but also support Moldova and Ukraine, moving towards one united European legal space, among others, application of national legal provisions and the provisions of the European Union within particular cases.
At the next panel, my colleague Jautrīte Briede will give a report on the current case law of the Constitutional Court, referring to adjudicated cases, and I will provide brief insight into the legal issues that we shall be examining this year. The initiated cases give the grounds for considering what kind of trends in the development of constitutional law and actual case law can be expected. I would like to inform you that the Constitutional Court will examine issues related to:
- the threshold amounts of the minimum State-guaranteed income and the period for reviewing thereof;
- the transition to studies only in the official language on the level of basic and secondary education;
- the duty of a Member of the Saeima [the Parliament] to get vaccinated against Covid-19;
- changes in the port management model;
- a municipality’s obligation to dismantle objects that glorify the Soviet power at its own expense;
- remuneration for the teachers working in institutions of pre-school education;
- provisions that decrease the diameter of the main fell, allowing to cut some species of trees sooner;
- prohibition of gambling by a local government’s regulation;
- the provisions, according to which the term of validity of the permanent residence permits expires, and the conditions for receiving repeatedly a residence permit for the citizens of the Russian Federation;
- on the entrance fee in the Latvian resort town Jūrmala.
Dear Colleagues, let’s start our discussions.
Second meeting among Judges and Employees
Dear Colleagues,
The states belonging to the international community and loyalty to the idea of a united Europe require the implementation of active international cooperation and the maintenance of supranational dialogue in order to promote the preservation of international peace and security. Therefore, the Constitutional Court of Latvia creates a dialogue at the national, European and international level.
Nowadays, the rule of law, the long-term sustainability of democracy and fundamental rights cannot be comprehensively ensured only within the framework of the national legal system – a comprehensive view and a broad international dialogue are necessary! Environmental protection law, protection of democracy!
Cooperation between courts of national states is strategically important as constitutional courts are not limited to the interpretation of national constitutional law in isolation. Dialogue provides constitutional courts with experience on wide range of issues, thus strengthening and expanding our shared values – democracy, the rule of law and protection of fundamental rights!
This dialogue is wide and, namely, it has three dimensions – this triangle is the national legal system, international legal system and European Union legal system – Constitutional court, Strasbourg and Luxembourg.
It is important to continue the road towards full integration into the European Union. After Moldova will join the European Union, you will be required to carry out a series of political, economic and judicial reforms. The integration process ahead will not be easy, it will require a lot of strength and patience.
I give the floor to my colleague Artūrs Kučs to present a report “The correlation between the European Union law and the Latvian constitutional case-law: the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia experience”.