| Abstract [eng] |
The study analyses the official doctrine of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania and identifies significant elements of the new constitutionalism. Judicial decisions of the Court are no longer based on the on the original meaning of the constitution enshrined in it (as it was at the time of promulgation). The court bases its rulings on the theory of prohibiting disproportionate interference in the individuals life based on equality and liberty. This interference is controlled, determined and defined exclusively by the constitutional courts themselves. Such a conclusion is made after analyzing the provisions of the official constitutional doctrine regarding the concept of the family and the right to referendum. The Constitutional Court of Lithuania also enshrined in its official constitutional doctrine one of the most important restrictions on democracy, characteristic of authoritarian liberalism, which is a clear feature of the new constitutionalism, that is, the restriction of constitutional amendments. The so-called theory of unconstitutional constitutional amendments is integrated into the official constitutional doctrine, which prohibits the amendment of some articles of the constitution even by referendum, and restricts part by controlling the referendum initiative through the constitutional court (allowing or not to hold a referendum on a specific amendment). These two cases show that the doctrine of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania is ahead of social change and refers to it. As emphasized in the theoretical analysis of the new constitutionalism, cited in the study, the transformation of constitutionalism in the XX century was the popular belief that it was not politics, electoral action and the resulting legislative action that promoted social progress, but an innovative judicial interpretation. |
