Now that everyone's thoughts are with the war in Ukraine, the cover of the latest issue of the Supreme Court Bulletin is also in Ukrainian national colours. The Bulletin focuses on the support of Latvian and European judiciaries to Ukrainian colleagues, as well as tells about the judges of the Supreme Court of Ukraine who have changed their judicial robes into military clothing.

An overview of the work of the Supreme Court in 2021 has been published in the latest Bulletin. It includes statistics, an overview of the work of the Departments of the Senate, of the Division of Case-law and Research, of the Administration and of the Disciplinary Court, as well as Chief Justice Aigars Strupišs’ summary of the work of the Court in 2021 and tasks for 2022.

Review of the past year’s case law topicalities have also been created: overviews of rulings containing case law findings published on the Supreme Court website, of Latvian preliminary ruling cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union and of court applications in the Constitutional Court last year, as well as of rulings that has changed Senate’s case law.

An insight into the international conference of the Supreme Court on the role and drafting techniques of rulings of the cassation instance is provided. Moreover, the reports of judges of the Supreme Courts of France, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights will serve well not only for the cassation instance.

In the section on legal thoughts, there is Senator Veronika Krūmiņa’s report on the role of administrative courts in the protection of constitutional identity, supplemented by a report of Senator assistant Monta Krone on cases where the Senate has examined the Central Election Commission's refusal to register a draft law or draft amendments.

Useful insights can be drawn from the publications of legal research counsels. Kristīne Zemīte writes about challenges faced by orphans' courts when hearing cases in accordance with the judgments of the Constitutional Court, whereas Oskars Kulmanis and Aleksandra Azeva draw attention to applications submitted in accordance with Chapter 63 of the Criminal Procedure Law, i.e., review of valid rulings due to material violation of substantive or procedural law.

"Don't be indifferent to what you are doing" Senator Dace Mita said in an interview less than a year ago. Now this conversation, where she talks about the drafting of the Administrative Procedure Law and about her values ​​as a judge, has been published in remembrance of her – a senator who has passed away prematurely.

The history section tells about the opening of the biographical dictionary of judges of the Supreme Court and regional courts. There is a speech by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, conversations with the founders of the renewed Latvian court system and a brief insight into video footage about life of some judges.

The Supreme Court Bulletin is published twice a year. It is received by Latvian courts and other judicial institutions, libraries and law faculties of higher education institutions.

See the Supreme Court Bulletin No 24 here.

 

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