Development of the justice system in Lithuania: revolution, evolution or involution?

ENThe chapter reviews the restoration and improvement of the independent Lithuanian judicial system and analyses the most important periods of the judicial reform that are frequently considered controversial, certain decisions of various state authorities, their interrelations and the search for their own “place” in the judicial system. This is done not only by analysing the respective legal acts of those periods but also by revealing the social, political and other conditions that existed at the time of adoption and implementation of these legal acts. The chapter focuses on the system of courts of general jurisdiction, which was first restored. The role of the official doctrine of the Constitutional Court in consolidating the independence of the functions of judges and courts and the place and importance of the Supreme Court of Lithuania in the judicial system and, in general, in the legal system of the State are emphasised.The role of the Ministry of Justice in restoring the judicial system is assessed. The success of the constitutional reform of courts—the establishment of a stable court system—was in principle determined by the fact that Lithuania had a sufficient number of qualified lawyers and could implement large-scale systemic legal reforms using its own resources. It is important that, at the beginning of the court reform and during its implementation, the reform was approved and considered as a priority by all branches of government. In Lithuania’s current legal and political reality, one can observe a paradox: while there is an obvious evolution in the development of the court system—the activities of the courts meet the standards of modern democracies governed by the rule of law—the manifestations of involution (regress) can be frequently observed in the attitudes of representatives of other branches of the government and politicians to the judiciary and its obligation and in their legal consciousness and political culture. [From the publication]