The Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate has significantly reduced the number of cases pending in court for more than two years. At the end of 2022, there were 122 such cases, but at the end of last year, 49 remained.

However, at the Plenary Session of the Annual Report of the Supreme Court Performance, Veronika Krūmiņa, the Chair of the Department of Administrative Cases, stated that the average time-frame for examination of cases (964 days or 32 months in cassation proceedings) is still the main concern. This time-frame is affected by cases where legal proceedings have been suspended due to filing an application to the Constitutional Court of Latvia or to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Dialogue with the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Constitutional Court of Latvia

A lot of administrative cases are characterized by having the dimension of European Union law. This also implies the duty of the Department to refer preliminary questions to the CJEU on the interpretation of EU legal norms. Last year, the Department submitted preliminary questions to the CJEU in four cases, namely on the interpretation of the provisions of the Directive on Public Procurement, the General Data Protection Regulation and the Union Customs Code.

Four applications have also been submitted to the Constitutional Court, namely an application regarding the compliance of a legal norm with the Constitution, which provides that the right to a state old-age pension depends on a person's permanent place of residence in Latvia, an application regarding the legitimate purpose and proportionality of a provision of Jūrmala City Council regulations, which provide for the right to immovable property tax relief depending on the tax payer’s citizenship, as well as applications in two cases on the issue of the so-called absolute prohibition regarding the proportionality and compliance with the Constitution of the restriction to run for the position of an insolvency administrator and a forensic expert, if the criminal proceedings initiated against a person for committing an intentional criminal offense have been terminated on non-rehabilitating grounds.

Cooperation with lower courts

V. Krūmiņa noted that the cooperation of the Department with the courts of first and second instance has been enhanced. The monitoring results of administrative cases (Senate's current findings on procedural issues of administrative cases) was presented to judges of the Administrative Regional Court and the Administrative District Court. For the first time, a meeting of the Department's counsels with judge assistants of the Administrative Regional Court and the Administrative District Court was organized.

In cooperation with lower courts, cases have been identified in which the final settlement of a resolvable legal issue is required for examination of several cases in a lower court. In 2023, two such cases were identified – a case regarding the restrictions of Covid-19 and a case in which the Department had to decide whether a gift from a cohabiting partner of a different gender, like a gift from a spouse, is exempt from personal income tax.

Topicalities of case-law

V. Krūmiņa also addressed last year's topicalities in certain categories of cases, in which case-law was formed, as previously such categories of cases had not come to the attention of the Department. Such cases pertain to decisions of the Minister of the Interior under which persons are prohibited from leaving Latvia, as well as there are cases regarding the application of the norms of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism and Proliferation Financing.

Topical insights are also expressed with regard to types of cases where there is case-law already established. As an example of this, the Chair of the Department indicated to cases related to requests for information, which included the novelty of Department's findings on the right to receive information that has come at the institution's disposal as a result of the public procurement procedure and contains a commercial secret. New insights of the Senate were also provided on issues related to compensation from the Medical Risk Fund.

Moreover, the Chair of the Department emphasized several aspects related to ensuring the right to a fair trial, which the Department drew attention to last year. One of these aspects is the duty of courts to see people's capacity to defend their rights and, if necessary, to recommend seeking legal assistance. Another issue is the ill-considered refusal of lower courts to hear a case at an oral hearing.

Other projects and events

V. Krūmiņa also tackled projects and events in which the Department of Administrative Cases, in addition to its primary function as the cassation court, had been active thus achieving other strategic goals of the Supreme Court.

The Department actively cooperates with the Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the European Union (ACA-Europe), and last year, for the first time, the Association held a seminar in Latvia in cooperation with the Supreme Court.

For the fifth year, the Department prepared a special issue of law journal "Jurista Vārds" dedicated to administrative law issues. As one of the invariable priorities of the Department is public education, in 2023 it also got involved in other educational projects, namely it took part in a working group that developed three educational cartoons about courts, worksheets for students and comments for teachers, as well as presented these materials to teachers of social studies. The Department represented the Supreme Court in a conversation of senators with youth at the LAMPA Conversation Festival, prepared questions for the TV erudition game “Gudrs, vēl gudrāks” (Smart, even smarter). At the Supreme Court, senators continued to give lessons in law for students.

Objectives and challenges in 2024

The primary task of the Department of Administrative Cases, as well as of the entire Senate, is high quality examination of cases within a reasonable time-frame. A constant challenge is finding the golden mean between quality and quantity, that is, between well-founded and comprehensible court rulings and reasonable length of proceedings.

Work on amendments to the Administrative Procedure Law is expected; in order to streamline and improve the regulation of the administrative proceedings, the Ministry of Justice has established a permanent working group on Administrative Procedure Law. Work on the implementation of the electronic case management system (e-case) shall also continue. 

The Department will continue dialogue with lower courts, public education and development of legal thought, and will engage in activities dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the establishment of administrative courts.

  • The full report of Veronika Krūmiņa, the Chair of the Department of Administrative Cases, will be published in the next issue of the "Supreme Court Bulletin"

 

Information prepared by

Rasma Zvejniece, the Head of the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: +371 67020396, +371 286522