Commission Report (2002): Latvia

The judicial system

The need for the reform of the judiciary has been recognised at the highest political level, and some steps have been taken to strengthen the effectiveness and independence of the judicial system mainly on the basis of the Judicial System Development Programme for the years 2001--2006. Efforts need to be stepped up to ensure continued and effective implementation of the programme.

The Latvian judicial system is composed of three tiers: district (city) courts, regional courts and the Supreme Court. In addition, there is a Constitutional Court, which may be addressed directly by citizens in cases of violation of fundamental rights. In Latvia, judges are nominated by the Ministry of Justice and confirmed by Parliament. Their independence is enshrined in the Constitution. The Ministry of Justice determines the number of Judges and administers the budgetary resources of the Judiciary. It supervises the organisation of activities at regional and district courts.

The last Regular Report mentioned three pending pieces of legislation: the Law on Sworn Court Bailiffs, the new Law on Criminal Procedures and the amendments to the Law on Judicial Power, as being essential for improving the functioning of the judiciary. So far, none of these laws has been adopted.

Despite international support, including Community assistance, the proposed new Law on Criminal Procedures, which would simplify and modernise the criminal procedure including court proceedings, reduce the backlog of court cases, speed up the consideration of juvenile cases, and extend the use of alternative penalties, is still at the drafting stage. This is regrettable.

Pending the adoption of the proposed new Law on Criminal Procedures, a number of other measures are being implemented to achieve the above-mentioned aims, in particular through relevant amendments to the existing Criminal Procedure Code. Amendments have been made in order to provide for an even case distribution among courts. Priority is now also given to the expeditious consideration of juvenile cases. In addition, other amendments to the Code aimed at simplifying and modernising the criminal procedure and at aligning legislation with EU requirements, including those on extradition, transfer of persons and recognition of decisions, were adopted in June 2002.

Amendments to the Law on Judicial Power, aimed at increasing the efficiency of court proceedings, by allowing judges to consider several cases at the same time, still remain to be adopted. In addition, in order to simplify court proceedings further, amendments to the Civil Procedure Law also need to be introduced.

The Law on Sworn Court Bailiffs, which has been pending for several years, should be adopted without delay. It aims at establishing an effective mechanism for enforcing court decisions, and at determining the rights and obligations of sworn bailiffs. It is thus essential in establishing the grounds for better co-ordination between court bailiffs and the court system.

The issue of the independence and efficiency of the judicial system, including the establishment of an independent court administration, still needs to be addressed. Furthermore, other issues such as the absence of well defined criteria and transparent methods for selecting judicial apprentices and appointees, and the Ministry of Justice`s influence over career paths, also need to be tackled.

As a measure to address the issue of judges' remuneration, which remains comparatively low, judges and court staff are to benefit from a special scheme in addition to the general remuneration reform of the public administration. In January 2002, amendments to the Law on Judicial Power entered into force, which introduce the same social guarantees and benefits for judges as for civil servants. However, while a policy document on the Remuneration of Judges still needs to be adopted, its financial implications have been included in the list of budget priorities for 2003. In the meantime, concerns over perceived corruption among the judiciary remain. While the budget available for the judicial system remains largely insufficient, a limited increase was made in the budget of the Ministry of Justice for 2002, which was increased to LVL 28 551 258 (EUR 50 984 871), compared with LVL 25 845 085 (EUR 46 234 499) in 2001. In addition, the number of posts at the Ministry of Justice was increased from 175 in 2001 to 203 in 2002. The number of judges' posts remained unchanged at 333. In total, eighteen posts were vacant at the time of writing.

In the absence of decisive new legislative measures to reform the judicial system, the number of pending court cases rose even further during 2001. At the beginning of July 2002, there was still a total of 5 062 criminal court cases and 22 829 civil cases pending, compared with 5 396 and 22 371 in 2001. Since the bulk of the backlog is in Riga, 350 cases were transferred from Riga district court to other courts in Latvia. The increasing backlog is pre-occupying, and needs urgently to be addressed.

As mentioned in previous Reports, lengthy pre-trial detention, a related issue stemming from the backlog of cases, has continued to pose a serious problem. While fundamental measures to address the problem are still pending, and the length of pre-trial detention is not always in conformity with international standards, initial progress has been made in speeding up the review of juvenile cases (see also below, section ``Civil and Political Rights''). Decisive further measures are needed to further improve this situation.

More frequent use is being made of alternative penalties. While in 2000 4.7% of convicted offenders were sentenced to community service, the figure rose to 8% in 2001. The establishment of a probation service has, however, been postponed until 2003, due to a lack of funding for implementing such a system.

As regards training, the implementation of a training policy for judges and other legal professions has continued mainly through the Judicial Training Centre, which has offered training measures on national, international and EC law and on human rights. All judges of regional and district courts participated in training seminars at the Centre at least once in 2001. A series of seminars on European law, human rights, corruption, economic crimes, narcotic and toxic substances and intellectual property rights has been organised, and there is an ongoing project to modernise university law studies. Priority should be now be given to providing training for court managers, other court staff, prosecutors and bailiffs.

In 2002, the allocation to the Judicial Training Centre from the state budget was increased to LVL 60 000 (EUR 107 143), from LVL 40 000 (EUR 71 556) in 2001. However, the training of judges and other legal professions, especially in EC law and human rights issues, continues to depend largely on bilateral support and international donors. In order to address the generally low level of qualification in these fields and to increase the capacity to enforce the acquis upon accession, training needs to be intensified and adequate funding from the state budget secured.

The modernisation of courts continued by upgrading the infrastructure of court buildings and by setting up a unified information network. The reconstruction of Daugavpils Regional Court was completed by July and work continued at the Riga Regional Court. The renovation of Riga District Court, where there is the largest backlog of court cases, will not be finished before the end of 2002. The computerisation of courts has continued, and a computer-based civil case management system is due to be operational in early 2003.

There is a need to improve citizens' access to justice (see below under Civil and political rights). The existing Criminal Procedure Code provides for a system of free legal aid in criminal cases, whereby the Ministry of Justice covers the costs from the budget allocated for this purpose. The Civil Procedure Law provides statutory legal aid and relief of litigation expenses. However, contrary to the principles generally applied to legal aid, at present, defendants have to pay back legal aid when a case is lost. Generally, the implementation of existing provisions on criminal and civil matters poses certain problems. Next to continued reforms of the court administration, the adoption of the new Law on Criminal Procedure as well as new legislation on civil matters should also address this issue.

Overall, while most of the deficiencies of the judicial system have been identified, only part of them have been addressed. Efforts in this field need to be multiplied in order to ensure a thorough systemic reform, based on political support to modernise the judiciary and sufficient funding. The legislative framework still remains to be completed and the increasing backlog of court cases should be reduced. Further significant efforts to strengthen the de facto independence, efficiency and quality of the judiciary are needed. The upgrading of the infrastructure of courts needs to be completed.

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