DEMOKRATIJOS IR ŽMOGAUS TEISIŲ APSAUGOS TARPUSAVIO SĄSAJOS KLAUSIMAI KONSTITUCINĖJE JURISPRUDENCIJOJE

Abstract

The article examines the issues of the connection between democracy and the protection of human rights and freedoms as two constitutional categories in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. Article 1 of the Lithuanian Constitution establishes that the state of Lithuania is an “independent democratic republic” and its article 18 declares that “human rights and freedoms shall be innate”. The Constitution is a directly applicable law and the application of the constitutional provisions is impossible without its legal interpretation. The mission of official interpretation of the Constitution is entrusted to the Lithuanian Constitutional Court. Democracy and protection of human rights and freedoms are constitutional principles and the juridical meaning of these categories are revealed in constitutional justice cases. The Constitutional Court in its cases explains various legal aspects of democracy and its connections with other constitutional categories, also its connections with human rights and freedoms. Constitutional Court has stated that one of the constitutional foundations of the Republic of Lithuania, as a democratic legal state, is the principle of recognition of human rights and freedoms as natural law. The Constitutional Court has recognized that democratic constitutional system cannot exist without the protection of human rights. Even more, one of the most important tasks of a democratic constitutional state is to defend and protect these rights and freedoms. The Court is considered that the respect for human rights is the main criterion for determining whether the character of a political regime is democratic. Therefore, it can be concluded that democracy and the protection of human rights and freedoms are not only categories belonging to one constitutional system, but constitutional categories linked by close internal and interdependence ties. These categories reinforce each other according to constitutional jurisprudence. The interpretation of the connection between the constitutional categories of democracy and protection of human rights can be viewed as a way of enriching jurisprudential constitutional law. This interpretation also contributes to ensuring the balance of the entire constitutional system

Keywords: Constitution, democracy, protection of human rights and freedoms, jurisprudential constitutional law, interaction between constitutional categories.