"A today's judge has to move with the times," states Aigars Strupišs, the President of the Supreme Court of Latvia, in the latest issue of the Supreme Court Bulletin. Several materials included in the Bulletin are devoted to this theme.

The Bulletin contains reports and summaries of ideas from the international conference "Values of the European Union – Responsibility of Every National Judge". There is a focus not only on benefits of the Latvian judicial system from joining the European Union, but also on the contribution of the new Member States to the EU legal space, and on the responsibility of national judges in this interaction.

Furthermore, at the Latvian Judges Conference, both the President of the Supreme Court and Senator Rudīte Vīduša spoke about the judge in 21st century’s society. Senator Vīduša, leaning on the findings of the process of evaluation of judges’ professional activity, spoke about today's community of judges, which is as diverse as the Latvian nation itself, as well as about the personality, weaknesses and growth of a judge.

One of the biggest challenges for the 21st century judge certainly is artificial intelligence. Therefore, it would be worth reading the article "Codes, court cases and contracts" on machine learning and artificial intelligence in the legal profession, prepared specially for the Supreme Court Bulletin by Dr Mihnea Constantinescu, a lecturer in finance at the University of Amsterdam.

The section on legal findings includes reflections of Senator Marika Senkāne, a member of the Central Election Commission, on the improvement of the electoral process. Senator Sanita Osipova reflects on freedom of expression and human dignity in education. As well as, there are reports of several senators and legal research counsels presented at the 82nd International Scientific Conference of the University of Latvia.

The section on case-law features decisions adopted at the meetings of chairs of Senate departments on the jurisdiction of cases where a difference of opinion occurs as to whether a case should be heard in civil or administrative proceedings, in civil or criminal proceedings. Moreover, the section includes an explanation of the General Meeting of Senators of the Department of Civil Cases regarding the written statement on an ancillary complaint, as well as a report prepared by the Division of Case-law and Research on important legal issues faced by the Senate this year.

In the history section there is an overview of the 20th anniversary of the Administrative Courts and information of the book "Senator Dace Mita".

The section "From the other side" tells a story of three judges of one family. Senator Inese Laura Zemīte expresses well wishes to her newly appointed judicial colleagues – daughter-in-law Sindija Zemīte and niece Agnese Adgere, and speaks with the words of Winnie the Pooh, "Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved". Not only this conversation, but the entire latest issue of the Bulletin will be a worthwhile journey. 

The Supreme Court Bulletin is published twice a year. It is distributed to Latvian courts and other judicial institutions, libraries and law faculties of universities. The 29th issue of the Bulletin is still being printed, but it is already available electronically on the Court's website.

 

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