19 May, 2023
The Latvian Judges Conference took place on Friday, May 19, and 360 judges from all over Latvia discussed the interaction of courts and how to improve the efficiency of court work.
At the opening of the Conference, Aigars Strupišs, the Chair of the Judicial Council, emphasized that "society demands a professional, efficient, objective court, and it has every right to do so. Whereas, it is the responsibility of all of us to ensure it. Therefore, the modern judge must understand his/her place in the structure of the state's constitutional bodies and be fully aware of his/her duties towards the society, not only in handling court cases, but also in ensuring the quality, reliability and prestige of the judicial system. Strong, active, objective self-governance, adequate selection of judges, training, guidelines for judgement drawing, case review methodology, normal objective statistics – this is the only way to ensure the professionalism of courts that will correspond to public interest in the long term."
Egils Levits, the President of Latvia, stated that "the structure of the court instances provides for a dialogue-like discourse between the highest and the lowest instance. A judge of the lower instance must convince a judge of the higher instance of the correctness of his/her judgment. It also works the other way around – judges of the Supreme Court also have to convince judges of lower instances of their judgment, its quality and validity, because the judge of the lower instance is independent. Moreover, he/she is independent of higher instances and independent of case law. Therefore, a dialogue-like discourse between higher instances and lower instances is very important."
Whereas, Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, the Minister of Justice, pointed out that "an independent, democratic state governed by the rule of law can exist if all branches of power work respectfully alongside each other. Ideological and political preconditions have no place in the career issues of judges. It is necessary to trust the ability of the judiciary to self-organize internally and have confidence that the self-governance of judges can solve challenges related to the qualifications, ethics and responsibility of judges, as well as to solve the budget issues of the courts themselves. Populist and non-constructive criticism is unacceptable, it encourages distrust not only in the judiciary, but in the country as a whole. Justice policy should also be such that judges, when examining cases related to various types of violence, would be professionally trained and able to recognize violence, would not allow the victim to be re-victimized and would not increase the feeling of impunity for the abuser."
In the first part of the Conference, Dr. iur. Sanita Osipova, the Professor at the University of Latvia, discussed the genesis and evolution of the three-tier court system. "A unified legal and judicial system is a requirement of recent times, which was determined by the need for one law and one justice for all. In present-day continental Europe, the three-tier court system forms the central axis of the legal state, guaranteeing the sovereignty of law," said S. Osipova.
Kristīne Līce, the representative of Latvia in the international human rights institutions, informed the judges about the development of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in Latvian cases since 2012, and also provided an insight into the topic of the principles established by the European Court of Human Rights regarding the appeal of court rulings and the review of cases in a written procedure.
Gatis Šļūla presented a view on the judges through the eyes of a cartoonist. The judges positively assessed the cartoons and the opportunity to look at their work with a touch of humour.
In the second part of the Conference, the interaction of court instances in the legal proceedings was discussed by Didzis Aktumanis, the Chair of the Kurzeme Regional Court, Jānis Grīnbergs, the Chair of the Vidzeme District Court, Inese Meldere, the Senator of the Supreme Court, sworn lawyer Inese Nikuļceva and Juris Stukāns, the Prosecutor General. The panelists discussed the issue of hearing cases in written and oral proceedings in the context of judicial efficiency and ensuring the right to a fair trial. When asked about how the judges themselves experience the interaction of court instances regarding the legal proceedings, the majority of judges recognized that there is a lack of professional discussion between court instances, namely that there should be more systematic exchange of information.
Whereas, when discussing the interaction of court instances in the context of the professional growth of judges, the judges indicated that the interaction regarding the professionalism of judges is intense, as there are meetings of respective court judges, there are work discussions, trainings, etc. The discussion was attended by Ermīns Darapolskis, the Senator of the Supreme Court, Sandra Kaija, the Senator of the Supreme Court and the member of the selection commission of district (city) court and regional court judges, Edīte Vernuša, the Judge Emeritus, Inga Zālīte, the Judge of Zemgale District Court and the member of the Judicial Qualification Committee, as well as by Andris Zutis, the Judge of Latgale Regional Court. The discussions were moderated by Anita Zikmane, the Head of the Division of Case-law and Research of the Supreme Court.
At the conclusion of the Conference, as part of the survey, the judges indicated that an imperative role in improving the efficiency of court work is played by high-quality judicial support staff and professional development of judges.
Additional information:
The Latvian Judges Conference is a judicial self-government institution, which is convened by the Judicial Council at least once a year. Judges of district (city) courts, regional courts and the Supreme Court take part in the conference. Members of the Judicial Council, judges of the Constitutional Court, Latvian judges working in international courts and honorary judges attend the Conference as guests.
There are a total of 532 judges of districts (cities), regional courts and the Supreme Court in Latvia.