Senate General Assembly
The Senate General Assembly was a joint institution of all three Departments of the Senate. All senators participated in the meetings of the General Assembly.
The competence of the Senate General Assembly was provided for in Section 60 of the Judicial System Law.
The General Assembly dealt with economic issues, as well as resolved the most complex and controversial cases received by the Senate. In total, it has decided more than 650 cases.
The website of the Supreme Court in the section Case-law/ Historical case-law summarizes 239 rulings of the Senate General Assembly or extracts thereof published and available in various publications.
Chairs of the Senate General Assembly
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Kristaps VALTERS 1920–1929
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Miķelis GOBIŅŠ 1929–1931
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Kārlis OZOLIŅŠ 1931–1933
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Kristaps VALTERS (acting chair) 1933–1934
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Aleksandrs GUBENS 1934–1940
See more about the Senate General Assembly and its chaire here:
Senate’s Departments
Civil Cassation Department
Chairs of the Department
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Kārlis OZOLIŅŠ 1919–1933
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Augusts LĒBERS (acting chair) 1933–1934
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Osvalds OZOLIŅŠ 1934–1940
Senators who worked in the Department
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Kārlis Ozoliņš, Augusts Lēbers, Fridrihs Vesmanis, Aleksandrs Pētersons, Fridrihs Konradi, Osvalds Ozoliņš, Rūdolfs Alksnis, Mintauts Čakste, Vladimirs Bukovskis, Jēkabs Grots, Pēteris Leitāns, Pēteris Stērste, Augusts Rumpēters, Maksis Ratermanis
Criminal Cassation Department
Chairs of the Department
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Miķelis GOBIŅŠ 1919–1931
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Aleksandrs GUBENS 1931–1940
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Jānis BALODIS (acting chair) 1940
Senators who worked in the Department
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Jānis Graudiņš, Miķelis Gobiņš, Broņislavs Nagujevskis, Aleksandrs Gubens, Fricis Zilbers, Jānis Balodis, Rūdolfs Alksnis, Jānis Skudre, Jānis Ankravs
Administrative Department
Chairs of the Department
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Kristaps VALTERS 1919–1934
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Jānis KALACS 1934–1940
Senators who worked in the Department
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Kristaps Valters, Augusts Lēbers, Andrejs Sīmanis, Fridrihs Vesmanis, Baldvins Disterlo, Jānis Kalacs, Kārlis Puriņš, Rūdolfs Alksnis, Kārlis Ducmanis, Teodors Bergtāls
Chief Prosecutors of the Senate
Chief Prosecutor and members of prosecution office also functioned within the Senate.
Chief Prosecutors
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Voldemars ZĀMUELS 1919–1921
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Aleksandrs HARITONOVSKIS 1922–1933
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Voldemārs KAŅEPĪTS 1933–1936
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Fricis ZILBERS 1936–1940
Office of the Senate’s rulings
Office of the Senate's rulings operated from May 1938 (in fact, from September) until October 1940, which aimed to administer and systematize the practice of the Senate and to take care of the harmonization of practices by forming special filing system.
Legal basis of creation of Office of the Senate’s rulings as an institution was the law adopted by Cabinet of Ministers on 29 March 1938 “Amendment to Judiciary”; its Articles 611- 6111 applied to Office of the Senate's rulings.
Amendment to law regarding the Office of the Senate's rulings was created from in-depth study of Western European analogous judicial institutions, which were personally visited by Senator Kārlis Ducmanis, representative of Independent International Court of Justice Organization of Latvia. He also became the first and only chairperson of the Office of the Senate's rulings.
Kārlis Ducmanis reports on office's work provide insight into operation of the Office of the Senate's rulings. They refer to work of employees, work intensity (in order to compile case-law) and cooperation with the Departments of the Senate.
The operating framework is set out in the Guidelines of the Office of the Senate's rulings. Part I (Management of the Office) and Part II (Functions of the Office) of the Guidelines were adopted by the executive session of the Senate Assembly in 13 June 1939. The Senate Assembly in 1940 discussed the amendments to Part II of the Guidelines and additions to Part III (Publications), however, they were never officially confirmed. Kārlis Ducmanis explanations to draft guidelines also include unpublished Part III.
In less than two years staff composed of four employees (excluding typists) made a collection of 3006 theses un 294 notes taken from rulings of 1937–1940 by Senate Assembly (44 theses, 2 notes), the Department of Civil Cases (1396 thesis, 96 notes), the Department of Administrative Cases (815 theses 99 marks) and the Department of Criminal Cases (696 theses, 96 notes). Some of these materials, in total 3500 pages, have been digitized and made available on the webpage of the State Historical Archives.
Karlis Ducmanis
