In order to promote uniform understanding of legal norms and to create uniform judicial practice in courts of appeal, the Supreme Court has prepared a compilation of case-law on the application of Section 566 of the Criminal Procedure Law, namely on the competence of a court of appeal to refer a criminal case for a new examination to a court of first instance.

The compilation systematises case-law findings expressed in Senate’s decisions adopted between 2015 and 31 May 2025.

The Senate's findings are organised into two groups, namely there are findings on the competence of a court of appeal to refer a criminal case back to a court of first instance and on the grounds for such a referral. Other important issues related to the application of Section 566 of the Criminal Procedure Law are also summarised in a concentrated manner.

The compilation contains summaries of cases examined by the Senate which are grouped according to serious infringements of the Criminal Procedure Law specified in Section 575 of the Criminal Procedure Law, which were or should have been established in order to refer a case for a new examination to the court of first instance.

The compilation was prepared by the Division of Case-law and Research in cooperation with the Department of Criminal Cases.

Additional information

In general, Latvian courts operate within a three-tier (three instance) court system. Courts of first instance and courts of appeal examine cases on the merits.

However, in certain cases, instead of deciding a case by adopting its own ruling, the court of appeal may refer it to the court of first instance for a new examination (Section 566 of the Criminal Procedure Law). The court of appeal shall decide whether to set aside a judgment of the court of first instance in whole or in part and to refer the case back to the court of first instance for a new examination if, during the examination of the case, it finds an infringement of the Criminal Procedure Law which necessarily leads to the setting aside of the judgment, or any other serious infringement of the Law which it cannot itself remedy without infringing the rights of the defence of an accused person.

 

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