El acceso individual a la justicia constitucional en Lituania: el potencial dentro del modelo recientemente establecido del recurso constitucional individual
| Autor | Ingrida Daneliene |
| Cargo | Investigadora principal de la Universidad Mykolas Romeris de Vilnius |
| Páginas | 283-311 |
© UNED. Revista de Derecho Político
N.º 111, mayo-agosto 2021, págs. 281-312
283
Fecha recepción: 10/10/2020
Fecha aceptación: 16/03/2021
INDIVIDUAL ACCESS TO
CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTICE IN
LITHUANIA: THE POTENTIAL
WITHIN THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED
MODEL OF THE INDIVIDUAL
CONSTITUTIONAL COMPLAINT
INGRIDA DANELIENE1
INTRODUCTION
The Lithuanian model of constitutional justice was created for the very first time
in the last decade of the XX century with the adoption of the Constitution in 1992
and the completion of the establishment of the Constitutional Court in 1993.2 Since
that time, a thorough jurisprudential constitution had been developed through the
caselaw of the Constitutional Court, thus indicating the achieved maturity of
constitutional control.3 However, for more than two and a half decades one of the
most reprehensible elements of the chosen model remained the lack of direct access
of individuals to constitutional justice. Following the introduction of the individual
complaint in Ukraine on 1 January 20184, Lithuania, along with Bulgaria, Italy and
1 Investigadora principal de la Universidad Mykolas Romeris de Vilnius. Ex-Secretaria General
del Tribunal Constitucional de Lituania. Address: Ateities str. 20, LT-08303, Vilnius, Lithuania
Email: ingrida.daneliene@mruni.eu
2 Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania [Constitution], Official Gazette Valstybės žinios [OG],
1992, No. 33-1014), for text in English see https://www.lrkt.lt/en/about-the-court/legal-information/
the-constitution/192; Law on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania (OG, 1993, No.
6-120), for text in English see https://www.lrkt.lt/en/about-the-court/legal-information/the-law-on-
the-constitutional-court/1475.
3 Jarašinas, E. Jurisprudencin konstitucija ir oficialiosios konstitucins doktrinos pltojimas. In
Konstituciniai ginčai. Vilnius: Mykolo Romerio universitetas, 2019, p. 338; Žalimas, D. The Constitution
of the Republic of Lithuania as the Jurisprudential Constitution. In Lithuanian Constitutionalism. The Past
and the Present. Vilnius: Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania, 2017, pp. 289-388.
4 Constitution of Ukraine, for text in English see https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/44a280124.pdf
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INGRIDA DANELIENE
© UNED. Revista de Derecho Político
N.º 111, mayo-agosto 2021, págs. 281-312
284
Moldova, had held out as one of the four Council of Europe member states5 having a
constitutional court, but not allowing direct individual access to constitutional
justice. This element of the Lithuanian model of constitutional justice thus dissonated
with the very essence of the trends of European constitutionalism of the second half
of the XX century — the latter both placing the rights and freedoms of the individual
at the center of constitutional protection, as well as recognizing that the efficiency
of protection of such rights and freedoms is directly dependent on the legal measures
or instruments available for defending individual rights and freedoms in instances of
possible violation.6
Under the Lithuanian Constitution, the right to fair proceedings, i.e. the right
of a person whose constitutional rights or freedoms have been violated to apply to a
court (as guaranteed by the Constitution itself7 and interpreted inter alia in the light
of Article 6 of the ECHR8), has always been seen as an absolute, undeniable9,
unrestrictable, unlimitable10 fundamental constitutional right, based on the universal
constitutional principle of judicial protection11 and derived from the foundational
constitutional principle of the rule of law12. On the other hand, the right to defend
one’s constitutional rights and freedoms could have only been implemented indirectly,
i.e. through limited subjects whose right to apply to the CCL had been expressly
established by the Constitution, specifically, that of courts and their constitutional
obligation to apply to the CCL regarding any legal provision that raises questions of
constitutionality and is applicable in cases heard by them.13 Accordingly, the
constitutional powers granted to courts to initiate the investigation of the
constitutionality of legal acts, inter alia, have always presupposed the right of a person
5 The constitutional complaint is known (in one form or another) to most European legal systems
having either a constitutional court or an equivalent institution, among them to the following states:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, Croatia, Latvia, Poland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta,
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Germany (1951), Albania, Andorra, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and
Ukraine.
6 See also Danėlienė, I. Who is Entitled to the Right to Respect for Family Life Under the
European Union Law?, Teisė, 1100, p. 25. Arnold, R. Reflections on the Universality of Human Rights.
In The Universalism of Human Rights. Dordrecht: Springer. 2013, p. 5. Žalimas, D. The Individual
Constitutional Complaint as an Effective Instrument for the Development of Human Rights Protection
and Constitutionalism, 2015, https://www.lrkt.lt/data/public/uploads/2016/07/2015-10-02-
individualcomplaint-kiev.pdf.
7 Constitution, Art. 30.
8 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 4 November 1950,
ETS No. 005.
9 Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania [CCL], ruling of 13 December 2004. OG,
No. 181-6708.
10 CCL, ruling of 4 March 2003. OG, No. 24-1004.
11 CCL, ruling of 18 April 1996. OG, No. 36-915.
12 CCL, ruling of 9 July 2015. Register of legal acts [TAR], 09-07-2015, No. 11196.
13 Arts. 30 and 110, paras. 1 and 2.
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