The Legal framework for administrative liability in Lithuania: lifting legal barriers to the efficient regulation of administrative offences

ENIn Lithuania, the reform of the legal framework for administrative liability of natural persons was carried out during the period 1990–2017—it took much longer than foreseen. Pending its replacement, many provisions of the Code of Administrative Law Offences, which dated back to 1984 and at the material time established the administrative liability of individuals, had become obsolete or outdated, having regard to new international obligations in the field of human rights protection, development of constitutional imperatives, state policy, and technological advancement. The revision of the legal act, which had been in force for decades, could no longer be a matter of legislative technique or subject to simple recast. Indeed, the continuous reform of administrative liability for administrative offences raised a number of conceptual issues and concerns pertaining to the proposed relationship between substantive and procedural legal provisions, establishment of an effective institutional model, consistency of administrative and criminal liability, and others. The chapter discusses the development of a regulatory framework for administrative offences and the challenges faced in this process. It highlights the key shortcomings of the legislation material at the time of the reform process and the solutions designed to solve it. Having analysed respective cross-cutting problems encountered during the reform of the legal framework for administrative liability, it is concluded that improving the quality and efficiency of the regime of administrative liability must become a continuous and systematic process. The proper functioning of the legal framework for administrative liability entails the need to further improve legal standards in respect of the principle of impartiality and in particular the procedural rights of individuals concerned. [From the publication]