Trisdešimt Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucinio Teismo veiklos metų

ENThis report overviews the path of the Constitutional Court during the 30 years of its activity in shaping the content of one of the fundamental principles of the State of Lithuania – democracy and in revealing the constitutional values related to this principle in the official constitutional doctrine. The development of the following main constitutional institutions of Lithuania, as a democratic state governed by the rule of law, and its society is discussed: the supremacy of the Constitution, human rights and freedoms, elections and referendums, the principle of the separation of powers and, at the same time, the responsibility of the authorities to citizens, the democratic decision-making process, political pluralism, and other related institutions important for the formation and development of civil society. The report draws the conclusion that the Constitutional Court, while exercising the entirety of constitutional powers assigned to it – verifying the constitutionality of legal acts and presenting conclusions on the issues specified in the Constitution, has defended and is defending the democratic system consolidated in the Constitution, as well as the enumerated values constituting this system. It maintains their stability by preventing encroachment on them and, even more, by preventing their denial, thereby contributing to the creation of more mature democracy.The overviewed official constitutional doctrine has confirmed the revealed and strengthened guarantees, deriving from the Constitution, for the formation of the highest and other state authorities, for the exercise of their powers significant to society and the state, and other guarantees for their activities, also the grounds for the responsibility of these institutions to citizens, and the limits of power that express the essence of the Constitution as supreme law limiting state power. This includes, in particular, the aspects of human dignity, the inviolability of liberty, and the equality of rights, also the guarantees of other human rights, including the principles of electoral law, as well as other grounds for the participation of citizens in the governance of the state, the constitutional provisions important for ensuring the development of civil society, and the guarantees for the protection of violated human rights. All this testifies to the formation of the multi-layered concept of democracy, gradually developed and consolidated in the Constitution, and not only in Article 1 thereof, together with the official constitutional doctrine, which is inseparable from it, in relation to other norms and principles of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court has become an integral part of Lithuania – a democratic state governed by the rule of law and evolving towards mature democracy. [From the publication]