Opening speech President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia Aldis Laviņš at the international conference “Sustainability as a Constitutional Value: Future Challenges”
Aldis Laviņš
President of the Constitutional Court
Opening speech at the international conference “Sustainability as a Constitutional Value: Future Challenges”
Riga, 15 September 2022
Highly esteemed Mr President,
Distinguished colleagues, judges and participants of the conference,
Welcome to Riga, the capital of Latvia, at the international conference held by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia “Sustainability as a Constitutional Value: Future Challenges”. Let us open the conference by honouring the national anthem of Latvia. Please rise.
Esteemed participants of the conference,
I am honoured to welcome, on behalf of the entire Constitutional Court, participants of the international conference “Sustainability as a Constitutional Value: Future Challenges”. Through these topics, chosen for the conference, we jointly praise the values that have pervaded the basic law of the Republic of Latvia – the Satversme– during the hundred years of its existence. The organiser of the conference, the Constitutional Court, has been guarding these values for more than a quarter of a century.
The word “sustainability”, included in the title of the conference, is not only a topic that is currently often foregrounded and can be meaningfully discussed for two days. It is, first and foremost, a fundamental constitutional value, which is especially underscored in the text of the Satversme, namely, “each individual takes care of oneself, one’s relatives and the common good of society by acting responsibly toward other people, future generations, the environment and nature.”
Distinguished colleagues,
In several of its rulings, the Constitutional Court has emphasised that the existence of the State is founded on the principle of sustainability. Democracy, sustainability, human dignity and protection of fundamental rights are interconnected and mutually reinforcing values.
All human beings associate sustainable development with stability, foreseeability, and security. However, this international conference is held at the time when we cannot always use the aforementioned words to describe the situation in Europe and in Latvia. Due to warfare in Ukraine, comprehensive energy crisis and problems related to managing the Covid pandemic, we are facing unprecedented challenges in many areas, and the Constitutional Court, while carefully preparing for the conference, over a longer period of time encountered new dimensions of the initially proposed issues and new forms of threats to democracy, fundamental rights and environmental sustainability. To find solutions to such challenges to sustainability, we have proposed three sub-issues, which will be discussed, in the course of two days, in three panel discussions where recognised legal practitioners and experts of legal science will give presentations.
At the first panel discussion of today, “Sustainability of Democracy: How to Prevent Threats to Democracy in a Democratic Way?” , among others, the role of constitutional courts will be highlighted, in ensuring the balance between protection of fundamental rights and the need to diminish or eliminate various threats to democracy. The range of issues to be addressed during the panel discussion is wide, in particular, at the time when we encounter challenges to the freedom of expression, electoral rights, spread of fake news and misleading of society.
Increasingly more leaders of countries of the world and other influential persons urge to look at the conditions, in which, currently, democratic systems function in the world, and to admit that for a long time we have been living, convinced that democracy is guaranteed and will exist forever, but this is far from being the case. It is well known that democracy cannot exist beyond a state, therefore the existence of the state is one of the values of a democratic state governed by the rule of law. A state like this is obliged to use all legal means to ensure its existence and prevent threats to it. One has to admit that this creates a vicious circle of a kind, namely, threats to democracy may be eliminated only in a democratic and legal way, whereas turning against democracy is often done by means provided by a democratic state governed by the rule of law. To break out of this vicious circle, we cannot allow that democracy functions only in such a way that a certain societal group accepts it only if its preferred solution, opinion or regulation prevails.
Democracy must be defended and every one of us must stand up for it, and this is not the task only for the legislator or the government. Courts have been granted exclusive jurisdiction, a wide range of instruments for protection of democracy. Law is the main tool for administering a modern democratic state governed by the rule of law, and therefore, currently, courts have an important role to play, in setting the directions of development of the state and society by applying this law. The constitutional and supreme courts of European states, whose representatives have gathered for this conference, in particular, in the current conditions when democracy is under threat, are of principal importance. The rulings of these courts include high-quality legal findings that develop the legal systems of our states and, thus, shape the tomorrow of entire Europe and the world.
At the same time ,I would like to highlight that for a prolonged period of time also the institutions of judicial power have been functioning in the conditions of various crises and challenges. Undoubtedly, in times of crisis, the speed of decision-making is important, often following the precautionary principle and not waiting for negative consequences to set it. Working in such changing, hard-to-predict circumstances is complicated; nevertheless, courts have to be ready for the challenge of passing complex rulings to ensure long-term protection for democracy.
Distinguished participants,
Respecting and protecting fundamental rights, included in constitutions, is the supreme task of a democratic state governed by the rule of law. Therefore, at the second panel discussion of today, “Sustainability of Fundamental Rights: Adapting Fundamental Rights to the Age of Modern Technology”, the participants of our conference will have the chance to turn to such conceptual matters as, for example, whether the need has not arisen to take a broader view on the scope of fundamental rights in digital environment. There is a good reason for it, because protection of fundamental rights in its traditional understanding, in the age of modern technologies, faces unprecedented challenges in the digital environment related to ensuring and balancing the right to inviolability of private life, data protection, freedom of expression and even remote “assembly”.
In recent years, certain collision has occurred between various conceptual views regarding the development of the system of legal provisions and creation of legal acts at the time when technologies develop so swiftly. One the one hand, it is the so-called “deluge of provisions”, attempting to follow each nuance in the development of modern technologies, engaging in detailed and petty creation of norms. On the other hand, to ensure sustainability of the regulation on technological areas, the legislator, in drafting legal provisions on technologies, may use the principle of technological neutrality. Legal provisions, which have been drafted and adopted in compliance with this principle, comprise general concepts, which characterise the respective technologies that need to be regulated depending on the aim of its use, impact and other general characteristics. This would allow creating the so-called legal infrastructure, which would service comprehensively and smartly the incessant progress, foreseeing the most necessary legal consequences. Thus, during the panel discussion, we shall try to establish whether new constitutional or supra-national regulation should be drafted or whether it is possible to adapt the existing regulation or create more laconic or more neutral legal constructions and interpret them in a dynamic manner.
Distinguished colleagues,
Currently, such policy for national development that finds balance between the need to promote economic growth and improve the quality of life for each member of society, as well as the need to safeguard the natural environment for the future generation, complies with the model of sustainable development. Therefore, tomorrow, at the final panel discussion of this conference, “Environmental Sustainability: Political Choice or a Matter of Fundamental Rights?”, participants of the conference will analyse whether the measures taken by different nation states had been sufficient to prevent climate change and whether a person has the fundamental right to demand the State to take the necessary measures to ensure environmental sustainability. Similar legal issues are relevant in several cases, which already are on the agenda of the European Court of Human Rights. Thus, the courts have a major role also in ensuring environmental sustainability, and, within the framework of the panel discussion, we shall be able to find out the views of the participants regarding, inter alia, the limits of courts’ jurisdiction in this area of law.
At the same time, I find it necessary to emphasize that, for more than half a year already, we have had to be aware that following the war that the Russian Federation has launched against one of European states – Ukraine, the representatives of the Constitutional Court of which have honoured our conference with their presence, geopolitical conditions also with respect to the issue of environmental sustainability have changed for an unpredictable period of time. We have entered the new world order only semi-prepared, thus, for example, in the conditions of energy crisis, our possibilities to use renewable energy resources have not been fully exploited. Thus, some issues of environmental sustainability turn into a new challenge. European countries are getting ready for winter, by storing fossil fuel, even though quite recently it was planned to abandon its use. Courts should be able to see this special context, reaching balance between long-term progression towards environmentally friendlier energy, on the one hand, and the acute needs to guarantee living conditions worthy of human dignity at the time of energy crisis, on the other hand.
Although the rising costs of energy resources, goods and services caused by the largest military crisis in Europe since World War II can be assessed as monetary penalty, it cannot turn into an equivalent of diminishing democracy or disproportionate restrictions of human freedoms. Even more so – we have to understand that the inconveniences existing in the European Union regarding payment of bills cannot be compared to the fact that Ukrainians are paying with their lives in the war for democratic values of entire Europe.
Hoping to see Ukraine win soon, I remind that the State of Latvia has also suffered considerably from the same aggressor. In hard times, the strong backbone of our statehood were the Latvian people, strong in their spirit, and our constitution – the Satversme. The values, included in it, have guided the Latvian people through dark events and have allowed to celebrate the existence of a free, independent state throughout times. Overcoming all hardships, today we can affirm that the Satversme as an unageing and modern constitution in its centenary encourages us to think both about today and the future, urging everyone to act in a way that promotes sustainability of the State of Latvia and the entire world.
I wish to all participants and listeners of the conference to gain qualitative findings and appreciate the wonderful possibility to engage in on-site discussions both during the panel discussions and in wider circle throughout the course of the conference.
I give the floor to President of the State of Latvia Mr Egils Levits.