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On arrival to the Supreme Court of Lithuania, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė was met by President of the Supreme Court Rimvydas Norkus and judges.

When thanking the President of the State for the visit and her insights shared during the meeting, President Norkus noted that though Lithuanian courts keep regaining their authority, there still remains a whole range of challenges.

Introducing the Supreme Court of Lithuania of a new and complete composition and its aspirations, the Head of the Court specially emphasised the necessity to increase the quality of rulings. ‘We should never forget our ambition to equal the quality of argumentation presented in judgements of Western European courts of cassation. Cassation must become definite and effective rather than a theoretical or illusionary review. There is only one goal: impeccable practice, comprehensive argumentation, clearly understandable wording of rulings in formulating a problem of the interpretation of law and presenting its explicit resolution’, stressed the President of the Court in his speech.

Rimvydas Norkus expressed his belief that the Supreme Court of Lithuania ought to seek becoming the centre of legal thought and a source of both theoretical and methodical reference for lower courts as well. Half a percent of all judgments passed by courts of general competence reach the court of cassation, thus the quality of their judgements is of particular significance.

Speaking about the most relevant issues of the judicial system in general, President Norkus highlighted not only the need to increase confidence in courts but also the necessity to restore the prestige of the judicial profession, to reduce the length of proceedings and to balance the workload of judges. ‘I honestly believe that it is possible to achieve confidence in the judicial system, that people are able to get a high quality service of justice administration, that they could feel safe and properly informed there, that they could clearly understand a court judgement’, noted the President of the Court during the meeting.    

The Supreme Court of Lithuania is the only court of cassation in the Republic of Lithuania for reviewing effective judgements and rulings passed by courts hearing criminal cases at the first and appeal instances as well as decisions and rulings in civil cases passed by courts of appeal instance. The Supreme Court hears cases exclusively on the questions of law. The principal objective of the Supreme Court, as a court of cassation, is to ensure uniform court practice of courts of general jurisdiction in the State by means of precedents formulated in the cassation rulings. A ruling passed by the court of cassation is final, not subject to appeal and becomes effective on the day of its adoption.

For more information see the website of the Supreme Court of Lithuania http://www.lat.lt. – please credit when citing or otherwise making use of data from this website.