The Supreme Court has prepared and published a compilation of case law in cases related to the field of customs law.

The summary systematizes the findings of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate (Supreme Court) in rulings made from September 2016 to 2023. This period of time was chosen to follow up the case-law review published in 2017 "Compilation of case-law in area of customs and matters related to customs 2010-2016".

The findings of the Senate are arranged according to legal acts, additionally, legal norms are systematized according to various legal issues. Namely, a legal norm is indicated, followed by findings of the Senate regarding the interpretation and application thereof. Moreover, relevant informative indications are added as references to cases in which the Senate has submitted preliminary questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The compilation contains two parts. The first part systematizes information about important legal acts of the European Union, such as the Customs Code (Regulation No 952/2013 and Regulation No 2913/92), other legal acts of the European Union related to the customs field, as well as Latvian regulatory framework. There are also chapters on issues such as the classification of goods according to specific Combined Nomenclature codes, and anti-dumping duties.

The second part systematizes the findings of the Senate on other issues that also pertain to the customs field, namely there is a chapter on excise tax and value added tax, as well as on procedural issues.

Hyperlinks are added to those court rulings that have been published on the Internet.

Conclusions of the Senate on customs issues are largely based on the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, therefore this summary also includes references to relevant findings of the Court of Justice of the European Union. In addition, a separate appendix has been created containing cases in which Latvian courts have referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling on issues related to customs law.

The summary was prepared by the Division of Case-law and Research in cooperation with the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate. 

 

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