On 19 February candidates for the position of a judge and young judges who study at the Latvian Judicial Training Centre met with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Ivars Bickovics and learned about the history of the Supreme Court and the Latvian judicial system.

During the meeting with the young judges, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court discussed the issues related to the reforms of the judicial system, especially the regional reform of the courts, merging the courts of first instance. The young judges belonged to already reformed courts, therefore the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was interested in their vision regarding the work of the judiciary after the reform.

Furthermore, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court asked the opinion of the young judges on the procedure for the selection of judges' candidates, which is intended to be changed. In the opinion of the young judges, the possibility for young judges to complete traineeships at courts is to be retained. Judging by their experience, judges rated it as a significant contribution to future work. They also welcomed the training programme for the young judges provided by the Latvian Judicial Training Center, in particular, the direction of court proceedings in the courtroom and lectures on the judicial ethics.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court also addressed issues of judicial ethics and gave the young judges a collection of theses of the Judicial Ethics Commission to serve as a guide in their work. The Chief Justice called for the young judges to be professional not only in the courtroom but also be active in discussing and evaluating various processes and reforms of the judicial system, and not to accept everything by silent and blind submission, but to give constructive and reasoned criticism, if necessary.

Calling for being active in expressing opinions, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court also recalled the restriction of a judge to engage in political activity, and also ensured them to reflect on their activities in social networks. The Chief Justice encouraged to topicalize the problematic issues of the court system and to solve them collegially within the system and to be mutually considerate.

In the conversation with the young judges, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court also addressed the judges’ communication issues, calling on judges to be open and courageous in communication and to refrain from provocations. "First and foremost, respect your job yourselves" the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court wished the young judges.

In the training programme for young judges organized by the Latvian Judicial Training Center, the legal knowledge of judges is strengthened and the skills necessary for the judge's office are developed. The programme includes young judges from the Administrative District Court, Riga City Latgale District Court, Riga City Vidzeme District Court and its Land Registry Offices, Riga District Court, and Rezekne Court and candidates for judges’ position from the Riga City Northern District Court, Riga City Latgale District Court and Riga District Court. Within the training programme, lessons are also provided by several judges and specialists of the Supreme Court. On 19 February, lessons were also given by judges of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Supreme Court Ieva Viskere and Anita Kovalevska.

 

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 28652211