28 January, 2014
In the sitting of January 27, the Board of Justice unanimously supported candidacy of Gunars Kusins, the Head of the Legal Bureau of the Saeima (Parliament), nominated to the office of a judge of the Constitutional Court.
Kusins indicated that proposal to stand was accepted, as he believed that his knowledge and experience accumulated, when managing Legal Bureau of the Saeima for 23 years and reading lectures on constitutional law in the University of Latvia, might be useful for work of the Constitutional Court. In his opinion, methodology of work of the Constitutional Court differs from that of work of the Legal Bureau of the Saeima – both institutions verify compliance of draft laws submitted with the Satversme (Constitution).
Also, there should be no concerns regarding possible conflict of interest, if he should stand “on the other side” as the judge of the Constitutional Court and assess compliance of laws adopted by the Saeima with the Constitution. “In this case, there is only one party, namely, the Constitution”, Kusins indicated, stressing that the Legal Bureau represented the Saeima in the Constitutional Court only if lawyers of the Bureau did not have objections against the law adopted by the Saeima. The candidate also indicated examples, when parliamentarians became judges of the Constitutional Court – A.Endzins, R.Apsitis, and I.Cepane. “The most important thing is objective and independent conviction of a person, and not place, where the person had worked previously”, Kusins said.
New judge of the Constitutional Court is necessary, as term of office of Gunars Kutris, the President of the Constitutional Court, who was appointed in the office by the Saeima upon proposal of ten parliamentarians of the Saeima in 2004, expires on February 5, 2014.
Candidacy of Gunars Kusins was nominated by 12 parliamentarians of the Saeima, as the Law on the Constitutional Court stipulates that the next candidate shall be nominated by the same institution, which nominated the previous one. Judges of the Constitutional Court are appointed by the Saeima, having listened to opinion of the Board of Justice.
Information prepared by
Rasma Zvejniece, the Head of the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court
E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: 67020396, 28652211