To much more self-critical assessment the judges of Latvia in the conference on November 2 were urged by the State President Valdis Zatlers who expressed hope in his address that judges will be ready to dispel concern that justice in the country is administered outside the court rooms.

The President approved the readiness of judges to speak about the problems and to admit a crisis in judiciary, praised the initiative of the Supreme Court to form a work group for evaluation of actions of the colleagues, however, he called the judges to a more difficult task – to be judges for themselves, as “it all will be meaningless if no activities follow, and no one who acted disrespectfully towards the state does not take off his professional symbol and does not take off the judge’s robe.” The society expects the judges to admit their mistakes, and a plan of actions for future. The President reminded that there are not many professions in Latvia where the oath is given to the state, but the judges when taking the position do it.

 

In the extraordinary conference of judges on November 2, 2007, 393 out of 520 Latvian judges took part. The conference was convened to discuss the existing situation after publishing the phone calls which indicate to possible violations of the law and ethics allowed by judges. The agenda of the conference and the draft resolution was worked out by a work group of judges of the courts of all levels which was led by the senator of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Supreme Court Veronika Krūmiņa. The conference adopted the resolution which disapproves of actions of judges what creates distrust to judiciary, however, the statement contained in the resolution worked out by the work group that holding a position of a judge by such a person who is not independent and impartial in administering justice contradicts with the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia was deleted.

 

 

 

Information prepared by Division of Communications of the Supreme Court
Author: Rasma Zvejniece, Manager of the Division of Communications of the Supreme Court
E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: 7020396, 28652211