Ranging from history to the future – that's how broad the time frame of the new publication of the Supreme Court Bulletin is. It includes topics from the right to a fair trial to a conversation "From the Other Side" – that's how diverse its content is.

This year is significant for the Supreme Court with the re-election of its president, and this process is also documented in the Bulletin – Aigars Strupišs’ vision of what needs to be done in his second term of office concerns both the Supreme Court and the court system as a whole.

The Bulletin contains materials from the Supreme Court's international conference "The Right to a Fair Trial: The European Convention on Human Rights in Dialogue between National Courts and the European Court of Human Rights", including speeches and presentations which, as Kristīne Līce, Adviser to the President of Latvia on Legislation and International Law, concluded in her summary of the conference, ensured high comprehensiveness, as both ‘microscopes’ and ‘telescopes’ were used to examine the content and impact of the principle of the right to a fair trial, looking at in detail and in a broader context.

The section of legal insights is also diverse. It includes presentations from the Latvian Judges Conference: Aigars Strupišs speaks about the untapped internal reserves of efficiency and quality in the judicial system, Diāna Makarova addresses the balance between the efficiency of the judicial system and the professional ethics of judges. Jānis Pleps has spoken at the Ukrainian Supreme Court conference about national security arguments in protecting the rule of law in emergency situations. Sanita Osipova has delivered a speech at the Berlin Economic Forum regarding bioethics in relation to the principle of human dignity. While Anita Kovaļevska has given a presentation at the Polish Supreme Administrative Court conference about the ways the practice of the European Court of Human Rights has influenced the control of discretionary power of institutions in administrative courts. An interview exclusively for the Supreme Court Bulletin has been prepared by Edijs Poga, Director of the Latvian Law Institute, in which he converses with Conor Quigley, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and King’s Counsel, who speaks on the two sides of the same coin – the European Union's state aid and foreign subsidy control rights.

The Bulletin is rich in materials devoted to historical events and the development of legal thought. Legal historian and Supreme Court senator Jānis Pleps is often invited to speak at various events. The Bulletin contains his commentary given at the discussion on the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia adopted on May 4, 1990, a speech given by him at the unveiling ceremony of the memorial to the voice of independence restoration Romāns Apsītis, as well as his detailed response to a question asked during a lecture at the University of Latvia as to why it is that we still need today a monument to Konstantīns Čakste and the Latvian Central Council.

What regards a book of value both for history and the future, "The Plenary Session of the Supreme Court 1990–2025", the Bulletin contains both the convincing speech "The Plenary Session Will Continue its Work!" given by the President of the Supreme Court  at the book opening, as well as the outlines by Dr. Jānis Pleps and Elīna Grigore-Bāra on the place of the Plenary Session in the constitutional system, in the process of ensuring the principle of judicial independence, and in the system of sources of law. An exclusive, first-of-its-kind extensive study of the activities of the joint meeting of judges of the highest court is Elīna Grigores-Bāra's retrospective on the development of the Plenary Session, as she begins it with the analysis of the activities of the General Assembly of the Latvian Senate, through the Soviet occupation and the National Awakening period, up to the present day.

As always, the Bulletin also includes the legal findings of the Supreme Court senators and staff acquired during their work-related travels, as well as legal practice – the decisions of the Meeting of Chairs of Senate’s Departments and the report prepared by the Division of Case-law and Research on significant legal issues in the Senate's practice this year.

In the section "From the Other Side," this time there is a conversation with one of the youngest senators, Indra Meldere, and her parents, sworn advocates Inese Lūse and Dainis Lūsis.

The Supreme Court Bulletin is published twice a year. It is distributed to Latvian courts and other judicial institutions, libraries, and law faculties of higher education institutions. Issue No 31 of the Bulletin is still being printed in a printing house, but it is already available electronically on the Court's website in the Latvian language..

 

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