News

On 27th September 2024, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (SACL) was visited by delegations of judges from the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland and the Cassation Administrative Court within the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

The guests, together with the President of the Supreme Administrative Court Skirgailė Žalimienė, the Vice-President of the Court Ernestas Spruogis, and Judges Veslava Ruskan, Jolanta Malijauskienė and Gintaras Kryževičius, took part in a tripartite roundtable discussion on "The Role of Administrative Courts in Ensuring the Effective Protection of Human Rights in the Field of Public Administration; the Present Challenges of the Supreme Administrative Courts in Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania".

The heads of the administrative courts of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine discussed the challenges facing the administrative court system, including the issue of jurisdiction, whether a dispute should be heard by an administrative or a court of general jurisdiction, and the specifics of the handling of normative cases.

In the first part of the discussion, Dr. Mykhailo Smokovych, President of the Administrative Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court of Ukraine, gave a detailed presentation on the issues of the retroactivity of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the changes in the judiciary system as a result of the judicial reform in Ukraine, the introduction of a new institute of constitutional complaint, and the efficiency of the Administrative Court of Cassation in performing the function of "filtering" administrative cases. The President of the Court also shared his experience of the need to restrict the right of access to public information of the state apparatus, including the courts, as a result of the martial law, and other peculiarities of the courts' activities during the third year of the war. The speaker highlighted the instruments in the field of human rights protection that have to be applied in the situation resulting from the war.

Dr. Mykhailo Smokovych, President of the Cassation Administrative Court within the Supreme Court of Ukraine, concluded his presentation by expressing his hope that "The Polish-Ukrainian-Lithuanian Round Table will result in constructive proposals in the field of international strategic directions as a result of professional interaction, exchange of international experience, and discussion of the current issues and challenges of the administrative courts".

Speaking about the current challenges in the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland, Jerzy Siegień, Vice-President of the Court, discussed the problems of the selection procedure for candidates for the Polish judiciary and the threats to the principle of judicial independence. The speaker also presented the practice of hearing cases within a reasonable time in this court, stressing the need to continue to strive for consistent case law, obstacles to the administration of justice and to ensure transparency in the court's activities and to fill the judges' vacancies.

Jerzy Siegień, Vice-President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland, welcomed the outcome of the debate: "Organising events such as the one we are participating in today can help to achieve the objectives we have set ourselves. The exchange of experience allows us to reflect on existing legal and organisational solutions and ways to improve them."

Presenting the trends in the activities of the Supreme Administrative Court, the President of the Court, Prof. Dr. Skirgailė Žalimienė, discussed the issue of assessing the threat to national security posed by foreign nationals, the stable number of cases heard by the Extended Chambers of Judges, as well as the complex issue of how to draw the boundaries of the scope of the applicable judicial review in respect of administrative decisions and acts based on complex assessments and decisions that require complex economic, technical, and scientific knowledge. The President of the Supreme Administrative Court also underlined the commitment to ensure legal clarity, consistency and compliance with the European Union law in the Lithuanian administrative justice system: "Administrative judges must always be aware of their European role and the impact that their decisions may have at international level. These tasks also require special qualifications of judges".

Concluding the discussion, the President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, Prof. Dr. Skirgailė Žalimienė, expressed the hope that the exchange of experience and knowledge will be of great benefit to the administrative justice systems of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine and that today's discussion will be the beginning of a new tradition of cooperation between our courts. "The experiences of our three countries - Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine - are unique, but they are united by a common European legal area and similar geopolitical challenges. I believe that this dialogue has not only allowed us to share our experiences and discuss the challenges faced by our courts, but also to find a common approach to possible solutions."