Vietos savivaldos sistemų teisinio reguliavimo mechanizmai

Abstract

The article discusses theoretical and practical aspects of the legal adjustment of the systems of local self-governance; it presents a description of the models of the organization of the local governance; it also points out the general features of the institutes of self-governance; furthermore, it presents the concept of the local self-governance consolidated in the European legislation. The article studies the distribution of competences of the institutions of the local self-governance and emphasizes the significance of the principle of subsidiarity (especially the decision taking on the lowest level) in the democratization of governance. In addition, it looks into the problems of the legal adjustment of the local self-government in the context of the democratic governance of the state. The article accentuates the necessity of the objective evaluation of the possibilities to transpose the institutions of local self-governance of foreign countries into the system of national legislation. The article presents the principles of the organization of the local selfgovernance enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and considers the compliance of the powers of the self-government Council, the Mayor and the Head of Administration laid down in the Law on Local Self-Governance. In order to avoid possible ambiguity in the text of the Constitution, it suggests setting a more detailed and clearer definition of the institutional structure of the self-governance and the powers of the subjects. It is proposed that the self-government council be granted a right to settle the main issues of selfgovernance, economic, financial issues and a right of appointment to key posts. They should be allowed to delegate their powers mandated by law to the mayor and control their implementation. Furthermore, it is suggested that the Constitution should stipulate that a member of the local council could be allowed to be elected as the mayor of the local government and that the mayor shall perform the representative as well as operative-executive functions and shall be reportable to the local administration council. The above model of selfgovernance would favour the subsidiary action of the selfgoverning institutions as the council would be able to delegate part of their function at their discretion to the mayor with supervision of their implementation. This would democratize the self-governance system and would enable to involve a larger number of the local community in the decision making.