International Conference “Court precedent. Experience of The Baltic States”

On 15 September 2016, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania together with Vilnius University Faculty of Law, Lithuanian Bar Association and the National Courts Administration organized an international conference “Court precedent. Experience of the Baltic States” at Vilnius University.

10 years ago, on 28 March 2006, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania stated that courts, when adopting decisions in cases of corresponding categories are bound by their own created precedents–decisions in analogous cases. During the conference, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian judges, lawyers and members of the academic community talked about the judicial precedent and its power.

In the opening of the conference, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania Chairman Rimvydas Norkus noted that this event rocked the legal community of Lithuania. “The principle of judicial independence, which had to be introduced anew into a newly constituted court system after Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, until then could have been used for concealing the previous interpretations of courts. After the resolution of the Constitutional Court, the principle had to be rethought. After all, a judge cannot be under undue pressure from the domestic judicial system”, said Norkus.

An interesting report about whether the new court precedent and its interpretation must be applied to the situations, which had occurred before, was read by Vilnius University Faculty of Law lecturer Dr. Aurimas Brazdeikis.

The conference participants were welcomed by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania Chairman Rimvydas Norkus, Vilnius University Faculty of Law Dean Prof. Dr. Tomas Davulis, Lithuanian Bar Association Chairman Dr. Ignas Vėgėlė. The conference was organized by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania, VU Faculty of Law, National Courts Administration and Lithuanian Bar Association.