Some Issues of the Creation of Lithuanian Law and the Constitutional Court
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Abstract
The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania was approved in the Referendum on 25 October 1992. It consolidated the doctrine of constitutional review and its practical form – the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. The foundation of the Constitutional Court and its already developed practical activities stimulate to evaluate more thoroughly the place and role of this institution in the state's system of law. Such an aim is predetermined by an undoubtedly active work of the Constitutional Court in the process of the creation of Lithuanian law.
The co-ordination of the inner relations in the organisation of the Lithuanian state is directly linked up with a dynamic development of law; however, while creating Lithuanian law one faces up with a lot of theoretical and practical problems. These processes determine some discrepancies of an objective and subjective character. One of them is the conformity of the laws and the norms of substatutory legal acts with the Constitution.
The rulings of the Constitutional Court, evaluating the correspondence of legal norms with the Constitution, always cause legal social consequences. In the cases when a legal norm is recognised to be not in compliance with the Constitution, there appear real legal consequences - this legal norm becomes eliminated from a legal system, i.e., it can not be applied any more. In this and the other case, i.e. when legality of a legal norm is not negated, the arguments as well as motives of the ruling passed by the Constitutional Court may also be evaluated by the aspect of legal sources. Thus, it is obvious that the acts of the Constitutional Court – no matter how they might be estimated within the system of legal sources – are a real legal phenomenon, the more comprehensive scientific survey which will help to evaluate the problems of the creation of law in Lithuania in a broader legal panorama.
According to the author's opinion, the most important and decisive role of the acts of the Constitutional Court is that they constantly underline the fundamental principle of the superiority of the Constitution. It is very important especially now when Lithuanian law is being formed. These acts are also important in the political process as they compose preconditions for avoiding more acute conflicts, and settling political disputes on the bases of the Constitution.
Legal positions which are formed by the Constitutional Court in its rulings are often not new ones, they are known in comparative law. However, in one way or another, they are important especially now, when the formation of law often goes on spontaneously as well as contradictory. Here are some such legal positions: a law or a substatutory act can not be used retroactively; substatutory legal acts can not overstep the boundaries of the functioning of laws; in the system of legal norms there can not be such legal norms which would contradict or negate each other; the general aim of a law has to correspond to the content of norms of a law. These are only some legal positions which are also being examined in this article.
The co-ordination of the inner relations in the organisation of the Lithuanian state is directly linked up with a dynamic development of law; however, while creating Lithuanian law one faces up with a lot of theoretical and practical problems. These processes determine some discrepancies of an objective and subjective character. One of them is the conformity of the laws and the norms of substatutory legal acts with the Constitution.
The rulings of the Constitutional Court, evaluating the correspondence of legal norms with the Constitution, always cause legal social consequences. In the cases when a legal norm is recognised to be not in compliance with the Constitution, there appear real legal consequences - this legal norm becomes eliminated from a legal system, i.e., it can not be applied any more. In this and the other case, i.e. when legality of a legal norm is not negated, the arguments as well as motives of the ruling passed by the Constitutional Court may also be evaluated by the aspect of legal sources. Thus, it is obvious that the acts of the Constitutional Court – no matter how they might be estimated within the system of legal sources – are a real legal phenomenon, the more comprehensive scientific survey which will help to evaluate the problems of the creation of law in Lithuania in a broader legal panorama.
According to the author's opinion, the most important and decisive role of the acts of the Constitutional Court is that they constantly underline the fundamental principle of the superiority of the Constitution. It is very important especially now when Lithuanian law is being formed. These acts are also important in the political process as they compose preconditions for avoiding more acute conflicts, and settling political disputes on the bases of the Constitution.
Legal positions which are formed by the Constitutional Court in its rulings are often not new ones, they are known in comparative law. However, in one way or another, they are important especially now, when the formation of law often goes on spontaneously as well as contradictory. Here are some such legal positions: a law or a substatutory act can not be used retroactively; substatutory legal acts can not overstep the boundaries of the functioning of laws; in the system of legal norms there can not be such legal norms which would contradict or negate each other; the general aim of a law has to correspond to the content of norms of a law. These are only some legal positions which are also being examined in this article.
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Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
