| Abstract [eng] |
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania can be distinguished from the general competence and special courts for its particular purpose, i.e. it ensures the precedence of the Constitution within the legal system and the constitutional legitimacy. Following the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, the Constitutional Court resolves whether laws and other legal acts passed by the Seimas do not contravene the Constitution. Within the hierarchy of the sources of law, the laws stand out for the regulatory character, particular procedure of their adoption, legal effect. Considering the scope of the regulatory framework of the laws, which is really encompassing, or the fact that namely the laws should regulate the most relevant social relations and, furthermore, acknowledging the fact that the subordinate legislation is adopted following the laws, it is highly important that the laws do not contravene the constitutional regulation, do not infringe personal rights and lawful interests, but, on the contrary, ensures them. Consequently, during the verification of the constitutionality of the given legislation the Constitutional Court shall bear the role of great significance. Upon the recognition of the laws as inconsistent with the Constitution, the Constitutional Court also eliminates them from the legal system. Only the Constitutional Court is granted constitutional authorizations to give an official interpretation of the Constitution. Such judicial interpretation binds all the institutions, including the Seimas also. This study provides the analysis of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania by assessing the compliance of the laws with the Constitution and, partially, the assessment of this practice in the Lithuanian legal science. The paper overviews the research conducted by the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of laws according to the contents of the rules, the scope, the form of the regulation and the procedure of the adoption, signing, promulgation and enforcement established under the Constitution thereof. Moreover, it focuses on the constitutional requirements for the legislator formulated by the Constitutional Court, as well as the reasons that predetermine the cases when the laws are declared as being inconsistent with the Constitution. Furthermore, this research gives a brief analysis of the status of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania and its competence, with further reference to the evaluation of the legal regulation gaps in the acts adopted by the Constitutional Court and conception of the acts adopted by the Constitutional Court. Finally, separate sections of the present paper include the conception of the law and the constitutional law within the Lithuania’s legal system, the assessment of their correlation and some of the problem-oriented issues associated herewith. |
