Lithuanian Constitutional Law Fixes Right to Petition: Parliamentary Experience
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Abstract
The article treats the features of the right to petition in the aspect of constitutional law science. The relevance of the subject of the article is presented in the introduction of the article. Further parts of the article present the prevailing conceptions of the petition right, defining the functions of the petition right, describing the influence of the development of human rights to the conception of the petition right. The article analyses the aspects of the petition right becoming more constitutional in Lithuania since 1920 till 1939, also reviews the mechanisms of realization of the right to petition.
Right to petition (in its narrow sense) is seen by many countries as a freedom to submit requests and initiatives to legislative and executive institutions, without fear of the legal damage (“by opening the public sphere”) and to raise society problems. In a broader sense, the petition right is understood as citizens’ (individuals’) opportunity to submit an appeal to the government institutions on the personal problems in the realization of individual rights and freedoms or to raise other individual problems.
Right to petition makes it possible to inform the public authority institutions, that the existing legal regulation does not allow to effectively exercise individual rights and freedoms, or the absence of legal regulation restricts individual rights and freedoms, and the State’s duty is to examine the petitions filed, to check and reach a decision without formal legal means or court. Thus right to petition may bridge the gap of legal protection, i.e. to secure the interests of society and individuals, without using the classical instruments of legal protection (e.g. a complaint). Disregarding the variety of petition right functions, we may state, that the petition right in democratic rule of law states performs a double function: 1. to protect society interests; 2. to protect individual interests.
In the process of development of the human rights institute, a number of political rights cannot be treated exceptionally as political ones. “The classification of political rights are changing and the rights like the right to associations (except for the right to join political parties), and freedoms of gatherings, demonstrations, meetings, free speech and press could already be ascribed to the political rights considering their content in the contemporary democratic state” [14, p.329]. The major political rights (to referendum, initiative to legislation) are only for the citizens of the given country, as subjects of political relations. The foreigners cannot exercise these rights.
Right to petition (in its narrow sense) is seen by many countries as a freedom to submit requests and initiatives to legislative and executive institutions, without fear of the legal damage (“by opening the public sphere”) and to raise society problems. In a broader sense, the petition right is understood as citizens’ (individuals’) opportunity to submit an appeal to the government institutions on the personal problems in the realization of individual rights and freedoms or to raise other individual problems.
Right to petition makes it possible to inform the public authority institutions, that the existing legal regulation does not allow to effectively exercise individual rights and freedoms, or the absence of legal regulation restricts individual rights and freedoms, and the State’s duty is to examine the petitions filed, to check and reach a decision without formal legal means or court. Thus right to petition may bridge the gap of legal protection, i.e. to secure the interests of society and individuals, without using the classical instruments of legal protection (e.g. a complaint). Disregarding the variety of petition right functions, we may state, that the petition right in democratic rule of law states performs a double function: 1. to protect society interests; 2. to protect individual interests.
In the process of development of the human rights institute, a number of political rights cannot be treated exceptionally as political ones. “The classification of political rights are changing and the rights like the right to associations (except for the right to join political parties), and freedoms of gatherings, demonstrations, meetings, free speech and press could already be ascribed to the political rights considering their content in the contemporary democratic state” [14, p.329]. The major political rights (to referendum, initiative to legislation) are only for the citizens of the given country, as subjects of political relations. The foreigners cannot exercise these rights.
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Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
