Following the restoration of the independence, in developing the system of courts, inter alia, the Supreme Court there was no need to start “from scratch”, since the legal basis of the independent Latvia, with new additions was used in reforming Latvia’s judicial system.
On 15 December 1992 the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia passed the law “On Judicial Power”, to form the legal basis for judicial reform of Latvia. For the first time the principle of separation of powers was corroborated by law, providing for an independent judicial power in Latvia in addition to legislative and executive powers. The law consolidates the three-instance court system in Latvia. On that basis, five regional courts were created anew in Latvia and the Supreme Court with its Chambers was transformed to serve as the court of appeals, with the Senate serving as the court of cassation appeals. In difference to the Soviet System, the Supreme court was no longer entrusted with the function of supervising lower instance courts.
On 3 October 1995, the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court passed the decision “On Establishing Senate Departments and Court Chambers of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Latvia” creating the current structure of the Supreme Court and approving the composition of the Chamber of Civil Cases, the Chamber of Criminal Cases, and the Senate Departments of Civil Cases and Criminal Cases. Chairs of Chambers and Departments were elected. The Department of Administrative cases started work in 6 February 2004.
In 2005, the Supreme Court celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of the restoration of its activity. The conference was organized due to anniversary and performance of the Supreme Court was assessed, as well as valuable opinions were expressed on the future development of the Supreme Court.
First composition of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate, approved on 6 February 2004 included Chair Valerijans Jonikāns and Senators Jautrīte Briede, Ilze Skultāne, Edīte Vernuša, Gunta Višņakova.
The initial Supreme Court reorganization project included also the chambers and departments of Economic Affairs and Constitutional Supervision
Department of Civil Cases of the Senate in 1995
Department of Criminal Cases of the Senate in 1995
The Supreme Court's plenary session decides on the establishment of Department of Administrative Cases of the Senate on 6 February 2004. In the foreground - first five senators of the Department