On October 13, the Saeima approved Jānis Pleps, the adviser to the State President on legal policy issues, the head and an associate professor of the Department of Legal Theory and History of the University of Latvia's Faculty of Law, as a judge of the Supreme Court of Latvia.

The vote of the Saeima was unanimous. Jānis Pleps will be able to take up the duties of a senator after taking the oath of a judge to the State President.

Jānis Pleps applied for the position of senator of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate. The general meeting of the Department's senators gave a positive opinion on his suitability for the position.

In 2011, Jānis Pleps obtained a doctorate in legal theory and history at the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia.

In 2007-2017, he was a leading researcher and lecturer at the School of Business Administration Turība. Since 2011 he has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia, since 2013 he has been an assistant professor, the head of the Department of Legal Theory and History, and since 2021 he has also been the vice-dean of the Faculty in matters of international cooperation.

At the same time, he has been an advisor to the State President since 2015 – from 2019, an advisor on legal policy issues, until then an advisor on constitutional rights. He has also worked as a legal adviser to the Legal Office of the Saeima.

Jānis Pleps also has an experience in court work. He started his legal career as judge’s assistant in the Regional Administrative Court and in the Constitutional Court.

He is the author of more than 150 scientific publications and has given reports at more than 70 scientific conferences. He is regularly invited to give opinions on complex legal issues, especially to the Saeima and the Constitutional Court. Upon the proposal of the Constitutional Court, he has been awarded the Badge of Honour of the Justice System.

To a great extent, following the encouragement of the Supreme Court, in his scientific work Jānis Pleps has focused on identifying and promoting the case law of the interwar Latvian Senate. He has received the Dītrihs Andrejs Lēbers Award of the Latvian Academy of Sciences for his activity.

In his application for the judicial position in the Senate, Jānis Pleps states that "the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate has made an invaluable contribution to strengthening the principles of the state governed by the rule of law and to ensuring observation of human rights in legal and social reality. The opportunity to be involved in this activity as a judge would be a great honour and a professional challenge for me. I am sure that at the moment I have achieved sufficient life and professional experience to be able to continue to work for Latvia as a judge and to be useful to 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 28652211

Photo by Ilmārs Znotiņš, Chancery of the President of Latvia