President of the Constitutional Court Aldis Laviņš has returned from the 5th Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice
On 4-6 October 2022, Aldis Laviņš, President of the Constitutional Court, and Andrejs Stupins, Advisor to the President, participated in the 5th Congress of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice “Constitutional Justice and Peace”, held in Bali, Indonesia.
The World Conference on Constitutional Justice unites over 100 constitutional courts, councils and supreme courts from Europe, America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. The Conference’s agenda includes ensuring justice throughout the world, examining issues of constitutional review, development of democracy and protection of fundamental rights.
On 4 October, at the Opening of the Congress, attended by 94 delegations and 583 participants, Aldis Laviņš spoke at the meeting of the European Constitutional Courts, where, as the first item, amendments to the Statute of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice, submitted by the Lithuanian Constitutional Court, were discussed; the amendments provided for the possibility not only to suspend the membership of a member state’s court but also for excluding it from the Conference.
Shortly before the Congress, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation approved the annexation of Ukrainian territories. During the Congress, a statement by the Ukrainian Constitutional Court was received, it expressed strident condemnation of actions taken by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and required preventing membership of such a court in the World Conference on Constitutional Justice. It should be underscored that already since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the courts of all three Baltic States that examine issues of constitutional law on daily basis actively demanded the exclusion of the courts of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus from the global community of constitutional courts.
At the meeting of the European Constitutional Courts at the Conference, the Constitutional Court’s President expressed strong support for the amendments, proposed by the Lithuanian colleagues, pointing out that the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation had turned into “a machine for legitimising” the policy of an aggressive autocratic regime and even was not a court in the meaning of Article 1 of the Statute of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice. The Bureau of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice did not uphold deleting the issue of excluding the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation from the Conference from the agenda of the sitting of its General Assembly on 6 October.
The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation discontinued its membership in the World Conference on Constitutional Justice immediately after the meeting of the European Constitutional Courts of the Conference.
It was also decided at the meeting to propose the institutions of constitutional review of Latvia, Albania, Austria and France as the candidates for choosing the representative of the European Constitutional Courts at the Bureau of the World Conference of Constitutional Justice. The Constitutional Court of Latvia expresses its heartfelt thanks to the Constitutional Court of Lithuania for nominating it for participation in the Conference’s Bureau, which gives it the opportunity to implement the Court’s strategic aims with respect to active international cooperation and contributing significantly to reinforcing the rule of law throughout the world.
On 5 October, Aldis Laviņš, President of the Constitutional Court, gave a presentation at the plenary session of the Congress on the role of courts in ensuring social peace and the importance of an application to the constitutional court. The President’s speech and video recording of his public address are available here:
On 6 October, the sitting of the General Assembly of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice was held in the framework of the Congress, during which the Latvian Constitutional Court was approved as a member of the Bureau of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice where it will represent the interests of all European Constitutional Courts.
President of the Constitutional Court Aldis Laviņš: “Over the years, the team of the Latvian Constitutional Court has carefully cultivated the traditions of international cooperation and believes that they contribute significantly to the development of the rule of law. We are convinced that the World Conference on Constitutional Justice is a forum of strategic importance that promotes the dialogue of all constitutional courts in the world. The mandate given to the Latvian Constitutional Court to represent the interests of all European Constitutional Courts in the Bureau affirms trust in those values that we protect in our work.”
At the sitting of the General Assembly, the amendments, submitted by the Lithuanian Constitutional Court, to the Statute of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice regarding the exclusion of a member state’s court from the Conference were transferred for examination to the Bureau of the Conference. Thus, the Constitutional Court will have further opportunities to work directly on the drafting of these amendments.