Irēna Kucina at the Congress of the Constitutional Courts of the World: Also in the Age of Digitalisation, Ensuring of Justice Must Always Remain in the Competence of Judges
On 28-31 October 2025, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia Irēna Kucina and Vice-president Anita Rodiņa participated in VI Congress of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice. This year, it was dedicated to challenges related to preservation of natural resources, climate change, protection of the cultural heritage of humanity, independence of constitutional courts, as well as access to scientific knowledge and new technologies.
The President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia was the keynote speaker at the panel discussion focusing on new technologies. In her address, Irēna Kucina underscored that the digital future, once anticipated, was already shaping our present. Therefore, legal concretisation of access to the Internet is needed now, directly affecting the exercise of several fundamental rights – the right to property, education, the freedom of employment, and others. State’s inability to ensure access to the Internet is contrary to human dignity. Currently, the protection of fundamental rights must take place not only off-line but also online. Therefore, communication with public authorities means more than simply providing an official website – it requires that such portals meet standards of accessibility, clarity, and usability. Whereas, if the future courts are going to function in the e-Case environment, it should not be mere electronic exchange of documents, it should be a secure, fully functioning digital platform that mirrors real proceedings.
“Each step towards digitalisation creates a kind of “digital shadow” in the legal reality. If this shadow is not timely and appropriately regulated it affects the legal system. Artificial intelligence is a tool in the hands of courts and not a decision-maker. If technology helps – it is our support. If it starts deciding instead of a human being – it becomes a threat to the rule of law. And the possible risks must be identified already today,” Irēna Kucina emphasised.
At this Congress, representatives of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia provided special support to the proposal made by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to add to the final conclusions of the Congress a section on the commitment of all courts of the world to take the necessary measures, within the framework of their competence, to ensure peaceful cooperation between the states, based on universally recognised constitutional values. Sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, effective environmental protection, safeguarding of cultural heritage, scientific development in the interests of whole humanity, as well as strengthening the independence of constitutional review institutions belong to these values.
Congress marked the term of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia on the Bureau of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice where it represented the interests of all European constitutional courts. During this period, understanding of the constitutional courts in other continents of the role of militant democracy and inadmissibility of Russia’s crime of aggression has been significantly strengthened, likewise, adoption of the resolution on the need to restore the international legal order was achieved. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia underscores, in particular, that constitutional courts, in fulfilling their duties, must take into consideration a broader geopolitical context because the challenges of the current times do not know state borders and directly affect constitutional values.
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia proposed the Constitutional Court of Austria as the next representative of the European region in the composition of the Bureau, and its participation in the Bureau was approved at the sitting of the General Assembly of the organisation. The Constitutional Court of Austria has been an active and constructive participant in the fora of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice and has extensive experience in strengthening the international judicial dialogue and cooperation.
The World Conference on Constitutional Justice brings together 124 constitutional review institutions from Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania, Asia, and Europe. The aim of the World Conference is to promote the rule of law and global-scale judicial dialogue, which is a crucial element in the protection of democracy and human rights. The Constitutional Court has been participating in this conference since 2011. At the Congress of 2022, the Constitutional Court was approved as a member of the Bureau of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice.
