Ineta Ziemele: Adoption of the Constitutional Law – one of the significant constitutional moments in the history of Latvia’s statehood
On Tuesday, 21 August, the President of the Constitutional Court Ineta Ziemele visited the general meeting of the Club of the Deputies of the Supreme Council, uniting deputies who voted for the restoration of independence. During this event, she gave a presentation on the legal aspects of the constitutional law adopted on 21 August 1991 “On the Statehood of the Republic of Latvia” (hereinafter – the Constitutional Law).
In her speech, Ineta Ziemele underscored that society was a process and that there always were decisive moments, which she called the constitutional moments. She explained that the fact that the people of Latvia had a state had depended both on internal constitutional moments and the international response to these moments. The adoption of the Constitutional Law was one among such constitutional moments in the development of Latvian society.
In her presentation, Ineta Ziemele emphasized: “The Constitutional Law concludes the work in implementing the aims set in the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of 4 May 1990, specifying the constitutional identity of the state and advancing a specified international law requirement with regard to re-recognition of this identity.”
She said that the countries of the world had to respond to this requirement, which they did, by affirming the continuity of the State of Latvia, i.e., that the State of Latvia had never ceased to exist and it continued its statehood.
Ināra Mūrniece, the Speaker of the Saeima, as well as board members of the Lithuanian and Estonian clubs of deputies who voted for the restoration of independence also participated in the general meeting of the Club of the Deputies of the Supreme Council.
The text of Ineta Ziemele’s presentation [in Latvian] is available here.