“On the 30th anniversary of the Senate's restoration, we are glad to conclude that the cassation instance court is evolving and improving in order to cope with the current challenges”, said the President of the Supreme Court Aigars Strupišs at the conclusion of the conference "Right to a fair trial: the European Convention on Human Rights in dialogue between national courts and the ECtHR".

The international conference, organised by the Supreme Court and dedicated both to the 30th anniversary of the restored Senate and to the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, highlighted the challenges faced by courts today – ensuring the rule of law and the right to a fair trial in the context of threats to democracy.

Having summarized the themes, views and conclusions reached at the conference, Kristīne Līce, Adviser to the President of the Republic of Latvia, concluded that people of each era see their own challenges as unique, yet these challenges need to be distinguished. One set of challenges stems from natural societal changes – such as digitalization and the rise of artificial intelligence – while the other set arises from the environments in which we live and the ways we inhabit them. The conference highlighted environmental threats such as climate change, but also threats to the rule of law and the democratic state, such as the abuse of human rights, and accusations which state that respect for human rights undermines national security. Courts have a crucial position in both identifying and addressing these threats. "Without independent, strong courts, it is impossible to maintain democracy, but neither can courts exist without a democratic state. The independence of the judiciary is a matter of Europe's self-survival," emphasized Kristine Līce.

The conference participants were addressed by Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Deputy Speaker of the Saeima, and Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, Minister of Justice. They stressed that the human rights of European standards are under threat in today's reality and need to be protected against growing populism and externally orchestrated attacks.

Andris Guļāns, who was the President of the Supreme Court at the time of the restoration of the Senate, was a special guest at the conference. His presentation included a reflection on the development of the cassation instance in Latvia.

The conference examined human rights through the prism of the right to a fair trial, and did so "with both a microscope and a telescope" – both going into detail and looking at the issues on a broad scale.

Ivana Jelić, Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights, gave a presentation on the interaction between the European Court of Human Rights and national courts, while Ineta Ziemele, Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union, spoke about the role of the independent court within the context of threats to democracy. One of her messages pertained to the conglomerate of autocracies that threaten democracy from without and from within. The European Union's response and strength lie in a common space of freedom, justice and security, which shares an understanding and legal practice. All European courts guarantee this common legal space and are the last bastion of the defence of genuine political democracy.

The two panels of presentations and discussions examined the right to a fair trial through different dimensions: the legal certainty of case-law and the reasoning behind court decisions, the transparency of the administration of justice and the accessibility of decisions.

In the first panel, Peeter Roosma, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, reported on reasoning of judicial decisions in the practice of the ECtHR, while Villu Kõve, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Estonia, shared the Supreme Court of Estonia’s experience in ensuring uniformity and coherence of case law. Dzintra Amerika, Senator of the Senate's Department of Administrative Cases, examined the right to a fair trial in interaction with the principle of effectiveness, seeking an answer to whether and how to respond to the arguments of litigants that in fact do not need to be responded to.

In the second panel, both Danguolė Bublienė, President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania, and Helena Jäderblom, President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden, spoke about the challenges of transparency in the administration of justice and the art of balancing different interests in today's context, where, on the one hand, society lives in a world of information and, on the other hand, there are increasing demands for privacy and data protection. Māris Leja, Senator of the Senate's Department of Criminal Cases, drawing on both his long experience as a prosecutor and his current experience as a senator, focused on the side-effects that can result from criminal case files being available before a court decision is made. In particular, the information made public may lead to a premature perception that the accused has been unlawfully prosecuted, or that the accused is ‘convicted’ by the public prematurely before the verdict is passed.

In the third panel, the speakers gave presentations on the trends and various perspectives on the development of the right to a fair trial. Kari Kuusiniemi, President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland, spoke on the role of non-governmental organisations in ensuring justice in environmental matters. Artūrs Kučs, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights, touched upon the balance between freedom of speech and other rights in today's geopolitical environment. Aldis Laviņš, Senator of the Senate’s Department of Civil Cases, elaborated on the development of cassation jurisdiction in the context of the right to a fair trial.

The conference was attended by judges – senators, presidents and deputy presidents of Latvian regional and district (city) courts, judges of the Constitutional Court, judges of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, presidents and judges of Supreme Courts of Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden and Finland, as well as heads of institutions belonging to the judicial system and human rights institutions, heads of law faculties and legal study programmes at universities.

 

Information prepared by

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

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: +371 67020396, +371 28652211