Speech by the President of the Constitutional Court Aldis Laviņš at the opening of the trilateral dialogue of the Baltic States
Tartu, 24 May 2023
Dear Colleagues!
Dear Estonian and Lithuanian colleagues! Dear Baltic family!
On behalf of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia I am honoured to extend to you all our satisfaction that we are finally in Estonia, concluding the first round of the Baltic Constitutional Courts’ trilateral meetings!
Tartu, or in the older Estonian name Tarbatu, which Latvians pronounce as Tērbata, has long been a common center of science, higher education, public opinion and intellectual life not only in Estonia, but in the entire Baltic as a whole. The entire history of Latvian culture, politics and also law, especially in the 19th century, was largely formed in Tartu. Therefore, symbolically, that one of the centers of Baltic legal thought nowadays is exactly Tartu.
Under normal circumstances, one such round of Baltic Constitutional Courts’ trilateral meetings would take a period of two years (because there are two intervals between the three points), but I am really happy that in the current geopolitical and other turbulences, we have managed to complete this round in three and a half years.
However, the most wonderful thing is that during this period we cooperated not less often, but much more often. Crisis situations alienate the weak, but unite the strong. The times of Covid and Russian aggression have become unifying – we have found new cooperation platforms where we have all become influential players in the united family of World’s and European constitutional justice.
By many joint activities, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania and the Supreme Court of Estonia expressed our solidarity and unity with our Ukrainian counterparts and the whole Nation of Ukraine. Together we achieved the withdrawal of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation from the World’s and European constitutional justice society. Only together we were and are able to convince many of our cooperation partners, not only in Europe, but also in the World, that after approving the annexation of Ukrainian territories, the Russian court had turned into “a machine for legitimizing” the policy of an aggressive autocratic regime and even is not a court in the meaning of the Statutes of these organizations. This is no longer a political issue in which judicial institutions may not even get involved, this is an issue about safeguarding of democracy and rule of law.
Also, only thanks to our united position the Latvian Constitutional Court in October was approved as a member of the Bureau of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice. Thus, the court of one of the Baltic states continues to represent the interests of all European Constitutional Courts in the Bureau, ensuring a transparent and comprehensive exchange of information and seeking for a legal solution to restore peace and the international legal order by establishing an effective mechanism for assessing the responsibility of individuals for violations of international law. This affirms trust in those values that we protect in our common work.
Close and comprehensive cooperation with your esteemed Courts has been a priority of the Latvian Constitutional Court for many years. It has made a significant contribution to the development of the rule of law and protection of human rights in our countries, region and Europe. We do hope to expand our solidarity, trust and friendship in mutual dialogue also in a future, therefore, we are already sure that the next round of our trilateral cooperation will be started again in Riga next spring!
The overarching aim of our meetings is to unite constitutional courts which are truly committed to our common values of democracy, rule of law, human rights and human dignity. I wish us meaningful discussions today and success in strengthening our shared values and carrying out the responsible task of safeguarding sustainability of democracy!