Anita Zikmane, Head of the Supreme Court's Division of Case-law and Research, presented the Senate's dialogue with the Court of Justice of the European Union at the 2025 Human Rights Conference "Human Rights Development in European Courts – Recent Case-Law", held at the Riga Graduate School of Law on 14 February.

In 2024, the Senate referred five cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union for preliminary rulings, where the Court of Justice’s opinion on the interpretation or application of provisions of European Union law has been relevant to a case. One case concerns the application of money laundering rules, one concerns the sanctions regime and parties related thereto, two concern the construction of direct electricity lines and one concerns sentencing of a private pilot who acted in bad faith for acquiring the licence.

In a discussion with Kristaps Tamužs, Head of the Legal Department of the Constitutional Court, it was noted that the Senate does not abstain from informing the Court of Justice of its views on possible answers to questions referred for preliminary rulings, which has enabled it to obtain specific and useful answers in cases.

In 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union provided answers in four cases referred to it for a preliminary ruling, such as on public procurement, on the customs duty regime for specific stamps used for fish movement studies, on compensation for breach of the General Data Protection Regulation, and on an accounting person in relation to money laundering.

Within the human rights context, such Senate's rulings were also noted which provide useful insights into the protection of fundamental rights when applying the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The annual Human Rights Conference has been organised by the Riga Graduate School of Law since 2006 and has established itself among Latvia's academic and professional events. Combining academic and professional aspects, the discussions seek to provide insight into current issues of application of the European Convention on Human Rights in Latvia. This year, a new practice was commenced at the conference – explaining the contribution of Latvian courts to the dialogue with the Court of Justice of the European Union on an annual basis.

 

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

Photo by Riga Graduate School of Law