This article reveals the implications that made the Lithuanian Council to step aside allowing the Temporary Government to continue the further process of restitution of Lithuania, immediately after becoming the central constitutional state institution. Prior to that, Lithuanian (State) Council had managed to declare the independence of Lithuania on the 16th of February 1918 under extremely difficult political circumstances and established the statehood on the 2nd of November of the same year. Under the will (...) of the Vilnius conference of Lithuania that took place in autumn of 1917, all Lithuanian political streams of these days have been represented in the Lithuanian Council. However, the Council itself has not managed to save the representative ability by agreeing with the resignation of its left element and by continuing the expansion and distance from the community of Lithuania. The Council has become an institution representing the right wing of the Lithuanian community which could not ensure any greater support. (shrink)

Today’s Lithuania is the historical-legal result of many processes, including the creation of the country in the thirteen century, ongoing life during five hundred years, two annexations resulting in the disappearance from the political map and two rebirths. The tradition of statehood and extended experience has greatly contributed to its survival and its ability to regain statehood in the light of the changed political, economic and social circumstances. Upon the climax of the First World War, the reinstatement of the statehood (...) of Lithuania has been influenced by favourable international situation, the popularity of the principle of nation’s free choice, and the decisive actions by the Lithuanian politicians. The relationship of the modern Lithuanian statehood with the historical state of Lithuania meant the continuity of this statehood, even though it was a multinational country. Without any other prospects upon the fall of other European empires, it has been replaced by the statehood based on national ethnicity. Together with the determination to manage the reinstated country of Lithuania according to the democratic principles, this was the main difference from the historical Lithuania. The state of Lithuania has managed to keep its own legal formal framework even though it has lost sovereignty upon annexation by the Soviet Union. The statehood has been reinstated once favourable circumstances came into place within the Union. The High Council of Lithuania has transformed from being a marionette structure forced upon by alien country into an instrument of parliamentary struggle for independence that has represented the second rebirth of the statehood of Lithuania. The formation of own law in both cases occurred by temporarily using current alien legislation that was not in conflict with the newly adopted constitutional legislation. The former has been gradually replaced by own legislation. (shrink)

The article deals with the legal acts which were adopted by the Supreme Council Reconstituting the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on 11 March 1990, and which are related to the restoration of the independent State of Lithuania. The author discloses the chronology of the legal acts adopted on that day and investigates why some particular act was adopted first, and only later another act was passed; he investigates the circumstances which determined the content of the legal (...) acts and shows the interconnection between these acts. The sequence and content of the legal acts of restoration of independence were determined by the fact that the independent State of Lithuania could not arise from the so-called “Lithuanian SSR” which had never been a form of Lithuanian statehood. The restoration of independence could and had to be grounded only upon the continuation of the pre-war Republic of Lithuania. One had to draw a boundary line between the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR, which was elected in democratic and free elections on 24 February 1990, and which was a genuine representation of the Nation, from the former Supreme Soviets of the Lithuanian SSR—the essence and formation procedure of which was completely different. This was done by adopting the Declaration “On the Powers of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR” in which it was held that in the 24 February 1990 elections the Nation vested to the deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR the mandate and the duty to restore the State of Lithuania and express the sovereign will of the Nation through this body, which, from 11 March 1990, 6 p.m., would be referred to as the Supreme Council of Lithuania. (shrink)

This article provides a study of the legal regulations of the European enforcement order and the uniform enforcement of judgments without the exequatur procedure, which have been in place between the member states of the European Union for five years already. In the Lithuanian civil procedure law it details the implementation of Regulation (EC) No. 805/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 for creating a European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims in the (...) national law of Lithuania. The aforementioned legal act of the European Union has been implemented in Lithuania with the adoption of the Republic of Lithuania Law on the Implementation of the European Union and International Legal Acts regulating civil procedure of 13 November 2008. (shrink)

The article describes the evolution of problems in the Lithuanian labour law and labour law science since the re-establishment of independence in 1990. Three periods of evolution are presented: the Soviet period (lasted until 1990), the transitional period (1990- 2004) and the period of the Labour Code (2003 and onwards). During the Soviet period, the Code of Labour Laws regulated employment relationship in strict detail as the main employer was the state itself. Good reflections of that period can (...) be pointed out: active (but forced) collective bargaining, single tariff system that implemented equal treatment in the field of remuneration for work and fluent performance of enforcement of labour laws (legal clarity). During the transitional period, new labour laws were introduced and tuned-up with international labour standards (ILO), but in general there were no essential changes in practice. During all that period, the Lithuanian Labour Code was drafted and came in force in 2003. The period of the new Labour Code started together with the European integration and had to bring new trends of the European labour market into Lithuanian practice. The government and academics brought few initiatives for the liberalisation of labour laws but most of them were stuck in the stage of consulting with social partners (Tripartite Council). Nevertheless, 22 years after the collapse of command economy labour laws incompatible with free labour market still dominate. It is obvious that the Lithuanian Labour Code is outdated and needs general reconstruction. Scientific researches and the EU Council recommendations call for the introduction of flexibility, implementation of flexicurity aiming for full integration into the single European labour market. Some strict labour code rules are prevented from functioning in practice. The courts are forced to derogate from disproportionate and improper articles of the Labour Code. The author brings some of the existing problems of labour law into light and proposes their possible solutions. The existing crisis of labour law could be solved by drafting a new Labour Code with the help of academic researchers and by introducing it directly to the Parliament for adoption. (shrink)

The article deals with a study of a distinct criminal punishment established in the Criminal Code and the Code of Punishment Enforcement of the Republic of Lithuania—restriction of liberty, as an alternative to imprisonment. Without investigating extensively the course of development of this penalty, in the article it is sought to overview the development trends of restriction of liberty; analyse the problems of enforcing this penalty and suggest measures to eliminate them; investigate whether the legal regulation of Lithuania is in (...) line with the provisions of the main international instruments relating to non-custodial sanctions (1990 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the so-called Tokyo Rules), Recommendation R (92) 16 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to Member States on the European rules on community sanctions and measures, Recommendation Rec (2000) 22 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to Member States on improving the implementation of the European rules on community sanctions and measures); review the progressive legal regulation of restriction of liberty in place in individual states and provide a comparison between the national and foreign experience in relation to the penalty of restriction of liberty. In addition, the article offers guidelines for the improvement of the legal regulation and implementation of the legal institute of restriction of liberty. (shrink)

The paper aims at revealing the key legal and political factors that determined the organization and holding of the referendum on unconditional and urgent withdrawal of the former USSR army from the territory of the Republic of Lithuania and restitution of damage to Lithuania. It is established that the main factor was that the Supreme Council-Reconstituent Seimas of the Lithuanian Republic adopted provisions on the status of the occupation army and was constant in seeking to ensure the sovereignty (...) of the state of Lithuania throughout its territory. The position of the nations, parliaments and governments of the Republics of Estonia and Latvia was yet another circumstance that the organizers of the referendum relied upon. Their position was aimed at ensuring that as a result of negotiations, the foreign military forces return to dislocation places in its own territory. Retrospective view on the phenomena and facts of the state’s internal and foreign politics in 1991-1992 makes it impossible not to notice that negotiations with the USSR and later, with the Russian Federation, took place in a complicated political arena. While Lithuania was seeking dynamism in negotiations, the other party was finding various excuses to impede dynamic actions and thus to delay positive agreements. Taking due regard to the situation, it was believed that a decision adopted by the Nation would speed up the negotiations on foreign state’s armed forces. (shrink)

The Baltic States – Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – are democratic states of law that respect human rights. As members of the Council of Europe, they implemented into domestic law the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (known as the European Convention on Human Rights) – an international document for the universal protection of human rights adopted by the Council of Europe. The aim of the paper is to analyze whether and to what extent (...) did Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian citizens file individual complaints to the European Court of Human Rights over the past thirteen years (2006–2018). The paper is to answer the question if the Baltic Sates’ systems of human rights protection are effective. One of the indicators of effectiveness is the number of complaints brought from the Baltic States to the ECtHR in relation to the number of inhabitants and also in comparison with the total number of complaints from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe as whole. The analysis will cover statistics on the number of judgments in Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian cases before the Court in Strasbourg issued between 2006 and 2018. This will be helpful in determining the degree and the type of violations by the Baltic States of the human rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. (shrink)

The article examines the subjective attitudes towards life chances of the Lithuanian youth (aged 18–35). Following the concept of life chances introduced by M. Weber (1920) (cited by Grusky 2001), the theoretical aspects of life chances are analysed. The empirical part of the paper is to survey the research results on the life chances of young people in Lithuania in 2023. Based on the analysis of scientific literature and survey research data, we can state that the subjective attitudes (...) of young people to life chances vary depending on age, gender, employment, and parents’ socio-economic status when the respondent is 14–15 years old. The survey research revealed that young people, who are currently not working or studying, or who identify themselves and their family with the lowest social class, most unfavourably evaluate their life chances. The scientific research is funded by the Lithuanian Science Council researchers group’s Project ‘Socio-economic Factors of Youth Life Chances Differentiation in Lithuania’ (Reg. No. S-MIP-22-42, contract date 18.03.2022). (shrink)

The article highlights the issues of nature protection in Halychyna region that have been arising since ancient times till1939. Inthe 20-30s of the XXth century the solution of this problem was considered in the search of separate valuable objects of nature, their expropriation from the sphere of economic usage and complete protection. In the hard interwar period, the Polish government, scientists and some land owners were doing their best to protect nature. This intense activity had a significant public basis, as (...) the main legislative basis of Poland of that time facilitated development and distribution of nature-protective activity in Halychyna region. Poland had a significant public legislative foundation for environmental protection and isolation of valuable natural areas/objects. First of all, since 1852 Halychyna had the valid Austrian law on forest conservation, according to which all forests, regardless of ownership form, had to be supervised by the State Forest Administration. In 1900 the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture issued the Circular concerning conservation of natural tracts and old trees. Later on, in 1927 the President of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth issued the Decision on the protection of forests that were not owned by the state; in1934 anew public law about monuments of nature was adopted in Halychyna, which greatly simplified and facilitated the procedure of conserving valuable natural objects in the country. In addition, Poland had a number of other valid laws on nature usage with the elements of environmental protection. In the 1920-1930s, nature conservation and isolation of national parks in Halychyna were performed by both the government authorities of Poland and numerous Polish academic-social entities, such as the State Council for Nature Conservation of Poland, Polish Committee for Nature Protection in Lviv city, the Polish League for Nature Protection, Department of Reserves of the Research Institute of State Forests, Nature Conservation Commission of the State Geological Institute. Apart from that, Poland also had various public nature protection societies of local history and natural sciences, such as the Copernicus Society of Naturalists, Society of Tree-Lovers, Society of Planting Local Hylads, Zoological and Botanical Society, Society for Animal Protection, 'Stowarzyszenia c.k. straznikow lasowych i dozorcow skladow', 'Straz Lesna w Kosowie', "Akademickiego kola Przyrodnikow wszechnicy Lwowskiej' and others. A number of protected state reserves have been created. In addition to the public ones, there were a lot of community nature reserves, which were bought by the Polish scientific-cultural societies and organizations, as well as private reserves, created on private lands by some land owners. Thus, in Halychyna region the issue of nature conservation was developing very actively in those years, yet under the auspices of the Austrian environmental organizations. Correspondingly, the new protected objects became Austrian or Polish state property. No Ukrainian natural reserves existed, and no national societies for nature protection. Therefore, the problem of nature protection in the 1920-1930s in the society turned from the purely ecological problem into the ecological-national one. Ukrainian patriots, uniting around their spiritual leader - the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, started a broad nature protection activity in Halychyna, focusing at conserving and multiplying the natural resources. First of all, they founded the Permanent Commission for Nature Conservation at the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society, which was carrying out an active nature conservation activity in the given region. (shrink)

Based on a multivariate analysis of the involvement of post-Soviet republics in UN and NATO peacekeeping operations, the author explores the integration of New Independent States into UN and NATO international organizations. Chronology of some peace-support and peace-enforcement operations is given. Of special focus is participation of special units of armed forces in such operations. Logical sequence of intrastate agreement on engagement of the military of independent Ukraine in international operations under the mandate of the United Nations Security Council (...) is traced. A respective decision-making process of the Lithuanian Parliament is examined for comparison purposes. Specific laws of Ukraine, which regulate such decisions, are indicated. The author offers concrete examples and describes the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in implementation of the UN peace-support mission. The paper cites Russian legislation governing cooperation with the UN and NATO in peacekeeping operations. By the example of formation of interstate military units between Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania ('Ukrpolitbat'), the Baltic Republics (the 'Baltic Battalion') and Central Asian Republics ('Kazbat'), the author shows the initiative of post-Communism republics in preservation of peace and stability in the world. Specific examples of involvement of the armed units of such post-Soviet republics as Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kirgizia in UN international operations are given. The paper describes the operations in Kosovo (1999), the Mediterranean Sea (2001), Turkey (2003), Iraq (2004), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996-2004) as well as Sudan (2005). Attention is drawn to reorientation of the NATO from the collective defence strategy to that of common security and execution of mostly international operations with domination of police functions, technical assistance in the postwar period and coping with technogenic catastrophes. (shrink)

The Convention on Cybercrime (the Convention) adopted in the framework of the Council of Europe is the main international legislative tool in the fight against cybercrime. It is the first international treaty on crimes committed via the Internet and other computer networks, dealing particularly with infringements of copyright, computer-related fraud, child pornography and violations of network security. Lithuania is among its signatory states, therefore, the provisions of the Convention have become binding on its legislator, obliging it to take all (...) necessary measures to harmonize national legal acts with the framework set out therein. The Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania (the CC) in force is the legal act establishing liability for criminal offences known as computer crimes and Internet crimes. Although the legislator of Lithuania had been combating cybercrimes since as early as 1994 by means of the amendments to the Soviet era Criminal Code of 1961, a significant effort was required to transpose the requirements of the Convention into the Lithuanian law, starting from the year 2007. The end result was not always as expected, leaving several serious gaps in the field of criminalization, which are thoroughly addressed in the article. In particular, this article deals with the topic of computer-related crimes and the legal approaches related to substantive criminal law of the Republic of Lithuania. The study is based on a comparative legal analysis of the Lithuanian CC and the Convention. (shrink)

The paper analyzes the development of the Sokol movement in Galicia in the late 19th century - the first third of the 20th century in the context of social and cultural processes. It is proved by actual examples that Sokol societies played an important part in the moulding process of national consciousness and consolidation of the Ukrainians over the period under research against the background of anti-Ukrainian policy of Austria-Hungary and the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is stated that by (...) combining the sports and national components in their activities, Sokol clubs became one of the centers round which Ukrainian youth were united. It is indicated that under the conditions of the lack of statehood Sokol organizations of Galicia, together with other national-cultural and sports societies, de facto performed a state function of physical training of the Ukrainians of the region. By uniting different social groups of the population through physical culture, the Sokols fostered patriotism, social activity and discipline, civic responsibility and morality, which doubtlessly promoted the rise of the national-cultural level of the Ukrainians, invigoration of the struggle for their rights in the context of the Austrian-Hungarian and Polish autocratic regime. It is proved that after the resolution of the Council of Ambassadors of the Entente states on the transfer of Eastern Galicia to Poland, the Polish authorities and community tried to hinder the dissemination of Ukrainian Sokol ideas in the region, which manifested itself in prohibition of registration of Sokol clubs and their statutes etc. It is stated that the attitude of the Polish authorities to the Sokols became most apparent when the Ukrainian community celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic and when the Polish government conducted a 'pacification' campaign in Galicia. In the meantime a great number of Sokol societies were liquidated. The paper places a high emphasis on Sokol ideology. It is mentioned that ideologists of the Ukrainian Sokol movement, having dismissed the idea of Pan-Slavism, adapted the activities of Sokil-Batko to the needs of the national liberation movement of the Ukrainians within the framework of the political system of Austria-Hungary and the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is pointed out that the Sokols, as opposed to other national-cultural organizations, declared nonpartisanship and promoted the inter-confessional consent in Galicia. At the same time, the Sokols popularized sport in every way since they believed that "the spirit of man is hardened together with the physical strength, national consciousness growing". (shrink)

After the Provisional Basic Law (Provisional Constitution) had been adopted on 11 March 1990, it soon became clear that it did not meet the new needs of the society and the state. It became clear that the new Constitution had to be drafted promptly. Its drafting was taking place at the time of heated discussions about various things, but especially about the structure of branches of state power, the empowerment thereof and their interrelations. The author of the article (...) was a member of the working group drafting the new Constitution. In his article, the author presents passages from the notes made by him about the sittings of the Provisional Commission for Drafting the Constitution and those of its working group. The notes disclose the variety of the views of the deputies and legal specialists and show the difficult way of emergence of the draft Constitution. This is confirmed by the time-line of drafting the Constitution. In 1990 and at the beginning of 1991, the first draft Constitutions were published, which had been drafted by the members of the societies of Lithuanian philosophers and lawyers, by the Lithuanian Democratic Labour Party, etc. Prior to the resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania of 7 November 1990, a group of deputies was formed for drafting an outline of the concept of the Constitution. On 22 October 1991, the Council of the Seimas of the Lithuanian Sąjūdis Movement made a statement “On the Restoration of the Institution of the President of the Republic”. On 5 November 1991, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania adopted a Resolution “On the Development of the Lithuanian Constitutionalism”, whereas by its resolution of 10 December 1991 it formed the Provisional Commission for Drafting the Constitution. On 3 March 1992, the said Provisional Commission approved the draft Constitution that it prepared; it was submitted to the Supreme Council. Three members of the Provisional Commission had submitted alternatives to a number of articles of the Constitution. On 21 April 1992, the Supreme Council assented to the work done by the Provisional Commission and decided to publish the draft Constitution so that it could be discussed by the public. On 6 May 1992, the Lithuanian Sąjūdis Movement, the Democratic Party, the Christian Democratic Party, and the Lithuanian Nationalist Union formed a coalition for drafting an alternative draft Constitution; soon the press published the alternative draft Constitution prepared by the Sąjūdis Movement Coalition “For the Democratic Lithuania”. On 23 May 1992, the referendum on the restoration of the institution of the President of the Republic took place—that referendum did not approve the proposal. Thus, two alternative draft Constitutions appeared. The essential difference between those drafts was a different approach to the system of branches of state powers, their empowerment and their interrelation. The draft Constitution prepared by the Provisional Commission was based on the parliamentary republic form of governance, whereas in the draft prepared by the Sąjūdis Movement Coalition “For Democratic Lithuania” the model of half-presidential republic was dominant. In order to prepare a single draft Constitution, which could then be proposed for the referendum of the Nation, political and legal compromises were sought. For this purpose, the Group for the Adjustment of Constitutional Issues was formed. At the end of September and at the beginning of October 1992, one single (the so-called “compromise”) draft Constitution was prepared from the existing two alternative drafts. The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania was adopted by the Nation in the referendum of 25 October 1992 and came into force on 2 November 1992. (shrink)

While implementing Directive 2009/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 providing for minimum standards on sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third country nationals (hereinafter referred to as ‘Directive’), Lithuania supplemented the Lithuanian Criminal Code with an additional Article 292-1, entitled “Labour of illegally staying third country nationals in the Republic of Lithuania”, which came into force on 6 January 2012. The author of this article aims to find out whether (...) the main goals and objectives of the Directive regarding criminal liability of the employer have been fully transposed into national law, and by using various scientific methods and the objectives of the Directive, to reveal the objective and subjective attributes of Article 292-1 of the Criminal Code. The second aim is to discuss the criteria distinguishing criminal liability from administrative liability enshrined in Article 41-3 of the Lithuanian Code of Administrative Offences, in particular that that article was not changed at the time of establishing criminal liability. The detailed scientific analysis revealed that Lithuania has essentially transposed all the basic requirements and obligations of the Directive, even though it was somewhat late (the Member States were obliged to implement the Directive by 20 July 2011, and Article 292-1 has come into force on 6 January 2012, while the Law Prohibiting Illegal Work has not yet been enacted). In addition, only four of the five criminal offences enumerated in Article 9 of the Directive have been fully implemented. The Lithuanian legislators have not established criminal liability for an infringement committed by employer using work or services of an illegally staying third country national, with the knowledge that he or she is a victim of trafficking in human beings. This infringement is partially criminalised in Articles 147-1 and 147-2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania, but in order to punish the employer one needs either to establish one of the alternative means by which the will of the third country national has been affected (e.g. coercion, force or threat, deceit or fraud, abuse of authority or abuse of a vulnerable position and etc.), which is not required by the Directive and, in the author’s opinion, makes practical application of criminal liability in this respect rather difficult. Another problem related to the implementation of the Directive is that we still do not have the respective Law and no systemic approach exists, while in the Criminal Code none of the terms used in Article 292-1 are defined and the law enforcement authorities might encounter practical difficulties in applying that Article, in particular considering that some of the definitions could be found only in the Directive itself. Possible difficulties could arise while deciding on whether criminal or administrative liability should arise in cases of continuous or persistently repeated infringements, because in the Criminal Code this feature is defined as “for business purposes”, which is rather subjective and should be established in every single case after thorough evaluation of factual data. (shrink)