There are many opinions about what law is. When speaking about law, we usually emphasise some aspect of law. For example, law is considered a social regulator, a cultural phenomenon of a certain era, a means to harmonise the interests of various groups of people, the result of the social contract, etc. One of the most common and at the same time appropriate definitions of law, when it comes to the mandatory laws of a country, is that it is a body of universally binding rules of conduct (legal regulations) adopted or approved (sanctioned) by public authorities, public agencies, or other entities (e.g. international organisations, a referendum) and enforced through state-imposed coercive measures. There are opinions that the law broadly means any rules that govern the behaviour of society and individual entities. In this regard, religious rules, customs, and rules of conduct imposed by groups of people could also be called the law. However, rules that are not recognised by the state or entrenched in the country’s legal acts are neither universally binding nor enforced through state-imposed coercive measures.

Whatever the opinion regarding the concept of law, the aim of the law is to regulate and affect, on the basis of certain criteria and with a certain goal (e.g. to ensure protection of consumer rights, to collect taxes, to protect the country) the behaviour of the entities for which it is intended. In the absence of law, many social interactions would be very difficult or even impossible and these interactions would not be stable.

2 HOW DID THE LAW COME INTO EXISTENCE?

This is one of the most difficult questions that have been addressed for centuries by lawyers, philosophers, and sociologists of law. The law is derived from a variety of sources: God’s will, public contract, objective life circumstances, actual human relationships, etc.

As far as the law of a country is concerned, a law or legal regulations are enacted. The enactment of a country’s laws is a strictly regulated process. In Lithuania, a special legal act, the Law on the Legislative Framework (LLF), governs the enactment of a law or legislation. The aim of the regulation of the legislative process is to ensure that the law is coherent, consistent with the principles of law and public expectations, and is enacted by those entities that have such a right, i.e. are competent, so that the law will provide conditions for the development of society and the state and for the protection of interests.

A rule of conduct is a mandatory rule and a law in a country only if it meets the requirements for the enactment of a law in that country. If a legal rule is enacted in breach of these requirements, it is considered illegal and cannot be applied. For example, on many occasions the Constitutional Court of Lithuania (Constitutional Court) has recognised legal rules as contrary to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (Constitution) if they were enacted without regard for the requirements of the Constitution or in breach of the rules governing the procedure of enactment.

3 WHAT IS LEGISLATION?

Article 2(5) of the LLF provides that the legislative process involves introduction of legislative initiatives, drafting of legal acts, enactment of legal acts, signing, and promulgation.

Article 4 of the LLF distinguishes between the different stages of the legislative process:

1) introduction of a legislative initiative;

2) drafting of a legal act;

3) enactment of a legal act;

4) signing and promulgation of a legal act.

The legislative stages are defined and requirements for them are provided in the Constitution, the LLF, other laws, legal acts of legislative power (Statute of the Seimas), and the case law of the Constitutional Court.

In its ruling of 8 November 1993, the Constitutional Court stated the following regarding legislative stages: “The legislative process is a set of legally significant actions necessary for the enactment of a law and carried out in a rigorous logical and temporal sequence. The following are the main universally recognised stages of the legislative process: realisation of the right of legislative initiative, consideration of a draft law, enactment of the draft law, and promulgation and enforcement of the law. Only at the end of one stage does another stage start. This sequential order of the legislative process is essentially enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania: realisation of the right of legislative initiative in Article 68, enactment of laws in Article 69, and the promulgation and enforcement in Articles 70–72. They do not separately specify the stage of the consideration of draft laws, which is the stage that guarantees the application of democratic principles in the legislative process. The actual presence of this stage can be inferred from other constitutional provisions, however: Article 71 speaks about the right of the President of the Republic to refer a law ‘back to the Seimas for reconsideration' and Article 72 speaks about the right of the Seimas to ‘reconsider and enact laws that have been referred back by the President of the Republic’. It follows that the consideration of the draft laws in the legislative procedures of the Seimas is a necessary stage. This is confirmed by the wording of Article 72 of the Constitution: ‘[a]fter reconsideration by the Seimas, a law is deemed enacted if the amendments and supplements submitted by the President of the Republic were adopted, or if more than half of all the Seimas members vote in the affirmative, and if it is a constitutional law, if at least three-fifths of all the Seimas members vote in the affirmative’”.

It must be remembered that there are many different types of legal acts according to the entities that adopt legal rules, the status of these entities (e.g. EU legal acts, laws, secondary laws), the type of rules set out in legal acts (regulatory and individual [implementing ] legal acts), etc. Depending on the type of legal act, its legislative principles and the rules for drafting and adopting the legal act or even the legislative stages may vary. The regulation in the LLF is constructed on the basis of the identification of exceptions, i.e. the legislative requirements set out in the LLF are applicable to all regulatory and non- regulatory (individual) legal acts excluding the exceptions stipulated in the law itself and other laws.

Article 1(2) of the LLF provides that this law, i.e. the requirements stipulated in the law, do not apply to the international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, except for the registration and promulgation of the treaties. It must however be kept in mind that according to Article 138 of the Constitution, Article 7 of the Law on Treaties, and Chapter 5 Paragraph 28 of the Statute of the Seimas, certain international treaties must be ratified by a law to which the general legislative requirements stipulated in the LLF and the Statute of the Seimas apply, albeit with exceptions (e.g. initiation of an international treaty, submission to the Seimas). Other international treaties can be adopted according to a different procedure, e.g. pursuant to a Government decree, to which general legislative requirements, albeit with exceptions, apply.

Article 1(3) of the LLF provides that this law also does not apply to implementing legal acts, except for the provisions regarding the registration, promulgation, and entry into force of a law. Therefore, e.g. general legislative requirements do not apply to the preparation, handing down, publication, and entry into force of court judgments and cannot apply, because of the specific characteristics of the court judgment, decision or ruling. The adoption of these legal acts is regulated by special rules set out in legal acts that regulate court proceedings (the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Law on Courts, the Code of Administrative Offences, and the Law on Administrative Procedure). It is true that some court judgements - the judgements, rulings and decisions of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court and the judgements of administrative courts concerning the lawfulness of regulatory administrative acts that have entered into force - are often considered both acts implementing legal acts and acts that have a regulatory effect, since they can be used for forming the general case law of these courts and courts of lower instance. All judgements, rulings and decisions of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court and all judgements of administrative courts concerning the lawfulness of regulatory administrative acts that have entered into force are recorded and published in the Register of Legal Acts, i.e. they are the objects of the Register of Legal Acts (Article 6(2)(20) and Article 22(1) of the LLF). Article 20(1) of the LLF provides that a regulatory legal act takes effect on the day after its official publication in the Register of Legal Acts unless a later date is stipulated in the act itself, while Article 20(5) provides that the implementing legal act, which is an object of the Register of Legal Acts, takes effect after it is published in the Register of Legal Acts unless a later date is stipulated in the implementing legal act itself. However, these provisions cannot be fully applied to the court judgements concerned, and their entry into force is regulated by the special rules mentioned earlier.

The Constitution, the LLF, and Law on the Constitutional Court provide specific characteristics associated with the acts of the Constitutional Court. Article 6(2)(19) and Article 21(1) of the LLF stipulate that decisions and judgements of the Constitutional Court concerning interpretations of the decisions of the Constitutional Court and notices by the chairman of the Constitutional Court by reason of the suspension of a disputed decision or renewal of the validity of a suspended act very much like some other court acts are recorded and published in the Register of Legal Acts. Decisions and judgements of the Constitutional Court concerning interpretations of the decisions of the Constitutional Court and notices by the chairman of the Constitutional Court by reason of the suspension of a disputed decision or renewal of the validity of a suspended act take effect on the date they are published in the Register of Legal Acts (Article 107(1) of the Constitution, Article 84(3) of the Law on the Constitutional Court and Article 21(4) of the LLF). However, general legislative requirements do not apply to the acts of the Constitutional Court; the Constitution and the Law on the Constitutional Court set requirements for such acts. For example, the Constitutional Court adopts decisions not on its own initiative, but when certain entities address the court (Article 106 of the Constitution).

Neither the LLF, pursuant to Article 1(4) of this law, nor general legislative requirements apply when citizens exercise their constitutional right of legislative initiative, right to petition, or right to submit to the Seimas a motion to amend or supplement the Constitution. Article 33(3) of the Constitution states that citizens are guaranteed the right to petition and that the procedure for implementing this right must be established by law. This procedure is established in the Law on Petitions. It sets out what petition is (any application or actions whereby citizens exercise their constitutional right of legislative initiative, initiative to announce a referendum, or right to criticise the work of state agencies or officials is not be deemed a petition), what its content and form is, how it is filed and considered, etc. The implementation of the right to petition is also regulated by the rules of the Statute of the Seimas, the Law on Local Self-Government, and other legal acts. Citizens’ right of legislative initiative is provided in Article 68(2) of the Constitution: “citizens of the Republic of Lithuania also have the right of legislative initiative. A draft law may be submitted to the Seimas by 50,000 citizens of the Republic of Lithuania who have the right to vote. The Seimas must consider this draft law”. Realisation of this right is elaborated in the Law on the Legislative Initiative of Citizens and Articles 135(2), 136(4), 139(5), 141(1), and 142 of the Statute of the Seimas. Citizens have the right to initiate the amendment of the Constitution as well (Article 147(1) of the Constitution, the Law on the Legislative Initiative of Citizens, and Article 169 and 170 of the Statute of the Seimas). Article 171² of the Statute of the Seimas also provides that 50,000 citizens of the Republic of Lithuania who have the right to vote have legislative initiative concerning constitutional laws in the Seimas (the Law on the Legislative Initiative of Citizens is also applied to this initiative). Article 171³ of the Statute of the Seimas sets out the requirements for filing and considering draft constitutional laws.

Article 1(4) of the LLF provides that the draft law or legal act proposed for a referendum must comply with the requirements specified in the law for the form, structure, content and language of the proposal, i.e. no other general legislative requirements are raised. The Seimas or at least 300,000 citizens who have the right to vote (Article 9(2) and (3) of the Constitution) have the right to initiate a referendum. The rules of the Law on Referendum regulate the realisation of the right of initiative of the referendum and other issues concerning the organisation and execution of the referendum.

Article 1(5) of the LLF stipulates an exception to the general legislative requirements with respect to legal acts related to the information that constitutes a state or official secret. These draft acts are prepared and approved and subsequently the acts are enacted, recorded, promulgated and take effect according to the procedure approved by the entities enacting these acts. The requirements for such acts are specified in the Law on State and Official Secrets.

Exceptions to the application of the general legislative requirements enshrined in the LLF are stipulated not only in the LLF. Other laws provide the cases in which provisions of the LLF apply to a limited extent. For example, the Law on Treaties and the Statue of the Seimas provide specific procedures for consideration and resolution of EU matters, and the Statue of the Seimas lists special legislative procedures for the withdrawal of the parliamentary immunity of a member of the Seimas, the impeachment process, dismissal of a Seimas official or a manager of a public institution, interpellation, etc.

4 WHAT ARE THE STAGES OF THE LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE?

4.1 WHAT IS A LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE AND HOW IT IS INTRODUCED?

This legislative stage is regulated and requirements for it are set out in Article 2(6) and Article 8 of the LLF. Legislative initiative is a proposal to establish a new legal regulation or amend an existing one by specifying the aims of this legal regulation or its amendment and the main provisions of the legal regulation.

In its ruling of 8 November 1993, the Constitutional Court analysed the legislative process and stated: “the legislative process begins with the introduction of an initiative. This can only be done by the entities specified in the Constitution that have the right of legislative initiative. The essence and aim of this right is to initiate the legislative process. In practice, this right is realised by submitting a specific draft law to the Seimas or formulating an essentially new idea concerning legislation in writing. If the proper entity expresses an idea regarding a certain law, the legislative body (the parliament) must initiate discussion concerning the draft law or the idea of the law”.

The LLF states that legislative entities, which in the law are identified as “agencies”, must plan legislative initiatives, commit them to strategic planning documents prepared according to the statutory procedure, and publish them in the Legislative Information System with the following information: the guiding principles and motives for the proposed new or amended legal regulation, the preliminary title of the draft legal act, the causes and the aim of the draft legal act, the beginning and end dates of the preparation of the draft legal act, and the promoter of the draft legal act (Article 8(1) of the LLF). The requirement to plan, introduce and publish legislative initiatives does not apply to the President, MPs, or members of municipal councils (Article 4(2) of the LLF). All other entities (e.g. the Government, ministries, municipal authorities, etc.) have this duty.

Agencies must ensure that the Legislative Information System publishes the relevant information about the legislative initiatives planned for implementation (Article 8(3) of the LLF). Taking into account proposals by the public or individuals and responding to changes in legal, economic, social, financial, or other relevant circumstances, these agencies can prepare and publish legislative initiatives in the Legislative Information System that have not been included in strategic planning documents (Article 8 (2) of the LLF).

Publishing information about legislative initiatives in the Legislative Information System is not an end in itself. The publication of information is a part of the consultations with the public (Article 2(2) of the LLF), during which proposals by individuals are collected, then they are assessed, and the assessment results are published. Furthermore, through the publication of information about legislative initiatives, the legislative principles of openness, transparency and efficiency are implemented.

The introduction of legislative initiative is a formal act subject to statutory formal requirements, and if there is a breach of these requirements, an act cannot be regarded as an introduction of legislative initiative. For example, if an entity publishes an article in a newspaper expressing an opinion about necessary changes to legislation or expresses such an opinion in a conversation, this will not be an introduction of legislative initiative. For a proposal to establish a new legal regulation or amend an existing one to be considered a legislative initiative, it must be introduced by an entity authorised by law. For example, an opinion expressed by a member of the Seimas concerning the imperfections in a law is not a legislative initiative.

4.2 WHICH ENTITIES ARE ENTITLED TO MAKE PROPOSALS TO IMPOSE NEW LEGAL REGULATIONS OR AMEND EXISTING ONES?

Which entity has the right to introduce new regulations or amend existing ones depends on the legal act. The Constitution, the LLF, the Law on Referendum, the Law on Petitions, the Law on the Government, the Law on Local Self-Government, other laws, the Statute of the Seimas, and other legal acts can introduce legislative initiatives. The entities that introduce legislative initiative are usually the ones that prepare the draft legislation.

Article 8 (1) of the LLF provides that legislative initiatives are planned and introduced by the Bank of Lithuania or an agency operating from the state or municipal budget or the state monetary fund and, according to legal acts, entitled to draft legislation. Article 4(2) of the LLF states that the requirement to plan, introduce and publish legislative initiatives does not apply to the President, MPs and members of municipal councils. Of course, they are not prohibited from exercising legislative initiative, but it may be difficult or impossible to do it according to the procedure stipulated in the LLF unless the legislative initiative from these entities is provided for in the description of the procedure for the use of the Legislative Information System for legislation. According to Article 1(2)–1(5) of the LLF, the provisions concerned with introducing a legislative initiative do not apply to 1) international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania; 2) legal acts concerning the application of legal acts; 3) when citizens exercise their constitutional right of legislative initiative, right to petition, or right to submit a motion to the Seimas to amend or supplement the Constitution; and 4) draft legal acts related to information that constitutes a state or official secret.

The provisions of Article 8(1) of the LLF mean that the entities that introduce a legislative initiative must have the following features: 1) be the entities specified in Article 8(1) of the LLF (the Bank of Lithuania or an agency operating from the state or municipal budget or the state monetary fund), 2) be entities that must introduce a legislative initiative, and 3) have a statutory mandate to draft legislation. The law does not specify that the entities may initiate only draft legal acts that they themselves adopt. This means that entities that possess legislative initiative may be entities that according to the procedure stipulated in legal acts have the right both to prepare draft legal acts and to provide them to the body that adopts them. Furthermore, only an independent agency, not a structural unit of an agency, holds the right of legislative initiative.

It is worth analysing initiatives introduced by several entities.

Article 68 of the Constitution states that the right of legislative initiative in the Seimas belongs to the members of the Seimas, the President, and the Government. These entities may submit the Seimas both draft laws and draft resolutions of the Seimas. Amendments to the Statute of the Seimas have in practice only been submitted by the Government. Citizens of the Republic of Lithuania also have the right of legislative initiative. According to the same article of the Constitution, 50,000 citizens of the Republic of Lithuania who have the right to vote may submit a draft law to the Seimas and the Seimas must consider it. As stated above however, of the entities mentioned, the requirement of the LLF to introduce legislative initiative only applies to the Government.

According to Article 85 of the Constitution, the President must issue acts-decrees when exercising the powers vested in him. This means that the President may not only prepare draft acts-decrees enacted by him/her, but also pursuant to his/her decree, prepare and submit to the Seimas draft laws and draft resolutions of the Seimas. However, as stated above, the requirement of the LLF to introduce legislative initiative does not apply to the President.

Article 94(4) and (5) provide that the Government of the Republic of Lithuania prepares a draft budget of the state and submits it to the Seimas, executes the state budget and reports on the fulfilment of the budget to the Seimas, and drafts bills and submits them to the Seimas for consideration (Article 20(1) and (2) of the Law on the Government provide that the Government has the right of legislative initiative in the Seimas. The Government must enact a resolution with relation to drafts of laws or drafts of Seimas resolutions that are being submitted to the Seimas). According to Article 95(1) of the Constitution, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania must resolve the affairs of state administration during sittings by issuing directives that must be passed by a majority vote of all members of the Government.

According to Article 38(1) of the Law on the Government, the right to submit the Government drafts of laws, resolutions of the Government, and other legal acts is enjoyed by the prime minister, ministers, municipal councils (Article 4(2) of the LLF provides that the requirement to introduce legislative initiative does not apply to members of municipal councils, but does apply to municipal councils), and other entities to which such a right is granted by the law. Drafts of legal acts submitted by the prime minister must be signed by the prime minister, and drafts of legal acts submitted by a minister must be signed by that minister. Drafts of legal acts submitted by municipal councils or other entities to which such a right is granted by the law must be signed by the minister of an appropriate area of administration. Article 40(1) of the Law on the Government states that drafts of laws, Government resolutions and other legal acts, and drafts of conceptions of legal acts must be prepared, agreed, considered and adopted (and that drafts of laws or Seimas resolutions must be approved) in the manner prescribed by the Rules of Procedure of the Government. These rules are a detailed legal act intended to regulate the legislative process and its stages and to introduce legislative initiative in the Government. For example, Clause 16 of the Rules of Procedure of the Government provides that the prime minister, when exercising legislative initiative with respect to the legal acts of the Government, may instruct the minister or the Office of the Government to prepare a draft legal act. Upon the prime minister’s instruction issued in the form of a secretary general’s resolution (Lith. rezoliucija), a ministry may be charged with the preparation of an appropriate draft legal act. The relevant instructions are also given when the Seimas returns Government draft laws or other draft legal acts of the Seimas for improvement. According to Clause 18 of the Rules of Procedure of the Government, ministers sign draft laws, draft resolutions of the Seimas and the Government, and other draft legal acts according to the area of their competence when exercising the Government’s legislative initiative.

The Seimas, MPs, and the President do not submit draft resolutions of the Government for the Government to consider.

According to Article 26(3)(3) of the Law on the Government, a minister submits the Government drafts of laws and other legal acts in the manner prescribed by the Rules of Procedure of the Government, and according to Article 26(3)(8) the minister submits the Government draft regulations of agencies under the ministry; when charged by the Government, a minister approves the regulations and administrative structure of the agencies under the ministry.

According to Article 3 of the Law on the Constitutional Court, the Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court determine internal issues, rules for the professional conduct of judges, the organisational structure, record keeping, and other issues of the Constitutional Court. These Rules of Procedure are approved and amended by the decision of the Constitutional Court taken by at least a two-thirds majority of the judges of the Constitutional Court. Such a decision is therefore an act of the Constitutional Court. However, legal acts do not specify who initiates and prepares the draft of any such decision. According to Clause 61.1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court, the Legal Department of the Constitutional Court prepares the draft documents of the Constitutional Court. The Legal Department cannot however initiate amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Constitutional Court, and this can only be done by the chairman of the Constitutional Court.

According to Article 13(5) of the Law on Local Self-Government, committees, commissions, municipal council members, council factions and groups, the municipal controller, and the director of municipal administration submit the mayor issues and drafts resolutions for consideration at municipal council meetings. According to Article 32(3)(13) of the Law on Local Self-Government, if necessary, the local governor prepares draft orders for the director of the municipal administration, draft decisions for the municipal council, and draft decrees for the mayor concerning the issues of the local government.

The above was a review of the main functions of state and municipal bodies concerning the realisation of legislative initiative. Other state and local government agencies must also introduce legislative initiative and realise it according to the requirements of legal acts.

4.3 HOW IS A DRAFT LEGAL ACT PREPARED?

This is the most difficult and most work-intensive legislative stage. Preparation of a draft legal act consists of interrelated actions aimed at the preparation of an appropriate draft legal act. Drafting of legislation is subject to two requirements: on the one hand requirements for the content and form of the process and for the entity, on the other hand requirements for the contents and form of the draft legal act. Compliance with these requirements determines not only whether the adopted legal act will achieve regulatory goals, but also whether it will be lawful, e.g. if the provisions of the draft legal act compete with the provisions of a higher ranking legal act, after the legal act is adopted it may be deemed unconstitutional (rulings of the Constitutional Court of 6 September 2007, 29 November 2009, 2 September 2009, and 9 March 2010).

4.3.1 What are the requirements for the promoter of a legal act?

Given that the drafting of legislation is complicated, complex, and requires a variety of knowledge, the draft of a legal act may not be prepared by the entity that has introduced legislative initiative and that started drafting the act (therefore becoming the promoter of the draft) or by the entity’s employee (or not only by its employees). This can be done by a working group formed by the promoter, or the promoter may purchase legislative drafting services. The law provides strict requirements for the selection of the promoter of the draft legal act and the drafting process itself both when the draft legal acts are prepared by a working group and when legislative drafting services are purchased. The decision regarding the selection of a method is taken by the entity that prepares the draft legal act in accordance with the requirements of Articles 10 and 11 of the LLF, the Law on Public Procurement, and other legal acts.

4.3.1.1 What are the requirements when the promoter forms a working group to prepare the draft legal act?

Several laws specify the possibility for the promoter of draft legislation to form a working group, e.g. Article 32(9), Article 48(8), Article 165(3) and Article 181²(2) of the Statute of the Seimas, Article 10 of the LLF, Article 28 of the Law on the Government, Article 20 of the Law on Local Self-Government, etc.

It should be noted that Article 10 of the LLF not only details the general legislation provisions, but also specifies many strict requirements for the formation and operation of working groups. For example, it stipulates that a working group (commission) may be formed to draft a legal act. Representatives of state and municipal institutions and agencies, non-governmental organisations, institutions of science and higher education, professionals in relevant areas, and other individuals can be members of the working group (commission). However, the law prohibits a lobbyist from being a member of the working group (commission) (Article 10(1) of the LLF).

Members of a working group can work in the group without receiving monetary gain, but they can also be paid. If the members of a working group are paid for the work, the law provides additional requirements for the formation of a group. The working group (commission) in which all or some members are paid for their work in the working group (commission) may be formed only when special knowledge, scientific knowledge, a comprehensive analysis of the existing situation, or an analysis of the practice of foreign countries is necessary for drafting a legal act and the entity that initiates the draft legal act does not have such knowledge or skills or cannot conduct the required analysis (Article 10(2) of the LLF). It follows that in this case only those members of the working group (commission) who have special knowledge or skills should be paid.

The payment procedure for the work in the working groups (commissions) formed by the Seimas, structural units of the Seimas, or parliamentary officials to draft legal acts is specified by the institutions stipulated in the Statute of the Seimas (Article 10 (5) of the LLF). Under Article 32 of the Statute of the Seimas, this procedure must be established by the Board of the Seimas. The payment procedure for the work in the working groups (commissions) formed by the President, Government, prime minister, and agencies operated from the state budget or state monetary funds to draft legal acts is specified by the Government (Article 10(6) of the LLF). The payment procedure for the work in the working groups (commissions) formed by municipal councils, mayors (deputy mayors), directors of municipal administrations, and heads of other agencies operated from municipal budgets to draft legal acts is specified by municipal councils (Article 10(7) of the LLF). The payment procedure for the work in the working groups (commissions) formed by municipal councils, mayors (deputy mayors), directors of municipal administrations, and heads of other agencies operated from municipal budgets to draft legal acts is specified by municipal councils (Article 10(7) of the LLF). The payment procedure for the work in the working groups (commissions) formed by the board or the chairman of the Bank of Lithuania to draft legal acts is specified by the board of the Bank of Lithuania (Article 10(8) of the LLF). Precise regulation of the payment for the work in the working groups drafting legal acts is important both in terms of compliance with legislative principles and insurance of the proper use of state property.

In order to implement legislative principles such as advisability, efficiency, openness and transparency, Article 10 of the LLF lists requirements for the publicity of information regarding the working group (commission). The information about working groups (commissions) for drafting legal acts, their composition, and the specific legal act each is drafting is published in the Legislative Information System and the website of the entity that has formed the working group (commission) (Article 10(3) of the LLF). The composition of the working group (commission) for drafting a legal act and period of its operation must be specified in the documents accompanying the draft legal act (Article 10(4) of the LLF).

4.3.1.2 What are the requirements when the promoter plans to purchase the services for drafting a legal act?

The promoter of the draft can buy drafting services. Such cases are provided in Article 11(1) of the LLF: if special knowledge or skills, scientific knowledge or skills, a comprehensive analysis of the existing situation, or an analysis of the practice of foreign countries is necessary for drafting a legal act, the research services required for preparing a legal act or drafting a legal act can be purchased only when the entity drafting the legal act or the working group (commission) formed by it cannot carry out the study itself or due to objective reasons it is not possible to form a working group (commission) to draft the legal act.

As can be seen, the LLF does not specify a finite list of requirements that the promoter of the draft legislation can use to decide when to form a working group or when to purchase these services. The promoter must establish the basis for any such decision in its internal legal acts or take an appropriate decision in each specific case.

The research services necessary for the preparation of a legal act or drafting a legal act can be purchased only according to the procedure set out in the Law on Public Procurement.

As in the case of forming a working group, in order to implement such legislative principles as advisability, efficiency, openness and transparency, Article 11 of the LLF provides requirements for the publicity of information regarding the procured services. The information about the procurement of the draft legal act, research required for the preparation of the draft, entities which have prepared the draft legal act or conducted the research, results and price of the drafting of the legal act and/or the research must be published in the Legislative Information System and the website of the entity which is preparing the draft legal act (Article 11(2) of the LLF). The price of the drafting of the legal act and/or the research necessary for drafting of the legal act, the reasoned necessity of the procurement of the drafting of the legal act and/or the research required for drafting of the legal act and the entities which have prepared the draft legal act and/or conducted the required research must be specified in the accompanying documents to the draft legal act (Article 11(13) of the LLF).

4.3.2 What are the requirements for the draft legal act?

The drafting of a legal act is a complex work that requires wide-ranging knowledge, but the draft legal act cannot be chaotic, and its provisions cannot be unjustified or set out without observing the requirements of the system. If adopted, an improperly prepared draft legal act could not be duly applied, there would be gaps in the law, legislative principles would be breached, and the aims of the legal act would not be achieved. The law therefore specifies requirements related to the content and form of legislation and the ways it is drafted.

4.3.2.1 How are legal acts drafted?

Article 17 of the LLF states that draft laws and legal acts are prepared in an electronic format in the Legislative Information System (Article 17(1) of the LLF). This does not mean that the text of the draft legal act will be processed only in the Legislative Information System. Electronic drafting means that many actions are carried out electronically, i.e. submission of interim draft versions, publication of information related to the draft, and presentation of the draft to various agencies and other entities for familiarisation and comments. The procedure for drafting legislation electronically is specified by the manager of the Legislative Information System (Article 17(8) of the LLF). Since the manager of the Legislative Information System is the Office of the Seimas, the procedure for drafting legislation electronically is detailed by the Secretary General of the Seimas. Article 17(2) of the LLF states that the entity preparing the draft legal act is provided with an opportunity to publicise the progress of the drafting process in the Legislative Information System, i.e. to publish various versions of the draft legislation and the information related to the drafting of the legislation. In order to obtain conclusions regarding the drafted legal act, the draft is placed in the Legislative Information System and the entities that must provide the conclusions are specified. The conclusions regarding the draft legislation are provided in the Legislative Information System (Article 17(4) of the LLF).

Agencies with which the draft legislation is harmonised usually participate in the drafting of legislation electronically. Other persons or groups of persons may participate in drafting of legislation electronically through the provision of proposals for the pending legal act (Article 17(3) of the LLF). However, entities wishing to participate in drafting of legislation cannot participate anonymously, but must identify themselves. Private individuals who participate in drafting a legal act electronically must indicate their given name and surname and legal entities must indicate their name (Article 17(6) of the LLF). It should be noted that the participation of various entities in drafting legislation is not an end in itself. Article 17(5) stipulates that when advice has been sought from the public, the assessment of the results of that advice and the comments and proposals received from the entities that had to provide their conclusions must be submitted to the entity that enacts the legal act.

4.3.2.2 What are the requirements related to the form of the legal act?

Article 13 and 14 of the LLF specify the form and structure of the draft legal act. Each law must consist of the following elements in this order (Article 13(1) of the LLF):

1) the title of the law;

2) the date when the law was enacted and its number;

3) the location where the law was enacted;

4) the text of the law;

5) the given name, surname and position of the person in charge of signing the law.

A law consists of parts, sections, chapters, and articles. An article of a law consists of parts and clauses, which can be broken into sub-clauses. Large-scale codified laws (codes), if necessary, may be divided into books. Depending on the nature, content and scope of the law, it may not contain all the elements (Article 13(1) of the LLF).

Each legal act, with the exception of the laws, must consist of the following elements in this order (Article 13(2) of the LLF):

1) the name of the entity that enacts the legal act;

2) the type of legal act;

3) the title (heading) of the legal act;

4) the date when the legal act was enacted, its number, and the place (location) that the law was enacted;

5) the text of the legal act;

6) the given name(s), surname(s) and position(s) of the person(s) in charge of signing the legal act.

Resolutions of the Seimas and decrees of the President consist of articles, parts and clauses. Legal acts adopted by other state and municipal institutions and agencies consist of clauses, sub-clauses, and paragraphs. Large-scale legal acts may be divided into sections and chapters, and these may be subdivided into subsections and subchapters (Article 13(4) of the LLF).

A legal act may include a preamble and annexes: tables, graphs, plans, maps, schemes, lists, etc. (Article 13(5) of the LLF).

Legal acts are drafted in accordance with Lithuanian language norms and legal terminology (Article 14(1) of the LLF). It should be noted that legal acts are drafted in accordance with Lithuanian language norms because the Lithuanian language is the official language of the Republic of Lithuania (Article 14 of the Constitution). In its ruling of 21 October 1999, the Constitutional Court stated that the official language inter alia integrates the civic nation, ensures normal operation of state and municipal government agencies, and is an important guarantee of the equal rights of citizens because all citizens can interact on equal terms with state and municipal agencies and pursue their rights and legitimate interests. Furthermore, this decision of the Constitutional Court states that the constitutional status of the official language also means that a legislator must ensure by law the use of this language in public life. In addition, measures must be provided for the protection of the official language. Under the Constitution, Lithuanian must be used in all state and municipal institutions and all agencies, businesses and organisations located in Lithuania; laws and other legal acts must be published in the official language; recordkeeping, accounting, reporting, and financial reporting must be conducted in Lithuanian; and state and municipal government institutions, agencies, businesses and organisations must conduct correspondence between each other in the official language. A person’s nationality (including his relations with state and municipal authorities and civil servants) cannot be the basis for a person to demand that the rules derived from the official status of the Lithuanian language do not apply with his respect; otherwise the principle of the constitutional equality of all persons with regards to the law, courts, public authorities, and public officials would be violated.

Article 135(3)(9) of the Statute of the Seimas states that it is necessary to specify whether the law has been drafted in accordance with the requirements of the Law on the State Language of the Republic of Lithuania and the Law on the Legislative Framework, and whether the concepts and terminology used in the draft have been assessed in accordance with the procedure stipulated in the Law on the Term Bank and the legislation that implements this law.

When an article (part of an article) or a clause of a legal act is amended, the new version of the article (part of the article) or the clause of the legal act must be provided. When a legal act is supplemented with a new article (part of an article) or a clause, the new version of the article (part of the article) or the clause must be provided. When an article (part of an article) or a clause of a legal act is repealed, that article (part of the article) or the clause must be specified (Article 14(2) of the LLF).

When more than half of the articles or clauses in a legal act are amended, a new version of the entire legal act must be provided (Article 14(3) of the LLF).

A single legal act can be replaced only with another single legal act (Article 14(4) of the LLF).

If a reference to another law is made in a legal act (except when a law refers to itself), the complete title of the law must be specified (Article 14(5) of the LLF).

If a reference to other legal acts (except for the laws) is made in a legal act, the name(s) of the entity(ies) that enacted the act(s), date of enactment, type of legal act, number of the legal act given by the entity(ies) that enacted the act(s), and complete title of the legal act(s) must be provided (Article 14(6) of the LLF).

A legal act with which EU legislative provisions are aligned and implemented must contain references to the EU legal acts according to the requirements of a government-mandated authority (Article 14(7) of the LLF).

Recommendations for drafting legal acts are approved by the Minister of Justice (Article 14(8) of the LLF). These specify only recommendations of a technical juridical nature for drafting a legal act.

Not only the LLF and the recommendations approved by the Minister of Justice provide requirements for the form of a draft legal act; these requirements may also be entrenched in other legal acts. For example, Article 135 of the Statute of the Seimas provides requirements for the drafts submitted for registration. It should be noted that these requirements, except for the requirement to provide a cover letter, apply to nearly all draft laws and other draft regulations of the Seimas, with the exceptions specified in the Statute of the Seimas. One of the most important formal requirements, perhaps the most important, is that only institutions and individuals who, under the Constitution, have the right of legislative initiative may submit draft laws and other draft legal acts that are adopted by the Seimas and proposals for their publication to the Seimas. The initiators must sign the draft legal act or other draft legal act that is adopted by the Seimas or proposal submitted to the Seimas. Where a draft law is submitted to the Seimas by Lithuanian citizens exercising their constitutional right, it must be signed by the authorised representatives of the initiators, and the signatures of citizens collected as required by the law must be enclosed with the draft (Article 135(1) and (2) of the Statute of the Seimas). Article 135(3) of the Statute of the Seimas specifies what must be included in the cover letter enclosed and submitted with the draft. Under Article 135(4) of the Statute of the Seimas, the initiators of draft laws or other draft legal acts that are adopted by the Seimas must enclose, together with the draft, a comparative version of the proposed amendments to the law or other legal act that is adopted by the Seimas, and that version must specify the essence of the amendments excluding the cases where a new version of the law or other legal act that is adopted by the Seimas is proposed; a conformity table presenting the conformity of the draft law, on an article-by-article basis (where the draft law implements EU legal regulations); and the results of the assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact (where such assessment must be conducted when drafting laws or other draft legal acts that are adopted by the Seimas) unless the results are provided in the cover letter. These requirements for draft laws are broader than those stipulated for other legal acts by the LLF.

A draft law, where necessary, shall be accompanied by a draft law implementing the law. The draft law shall be accompanied by other draft legal acts being adopted by the Seimas concerning amendment or repeal of the legal acts currently in force and which must be adopted after the enactment of the submitted draft law (Article 135(5) of the Statute of the Seimas). This requirement is designed to ensure that the newly adopted regulations correspond to each other and to other legislation.

4.3.2.3 What are the requirements for the content of the draft legal act (what should the legal act be like to properly regulate social relations)?

Requirements related to the content of the draft legal act are most important in the legislative process, but most difficult to be defined and probably least regulated. It is difficult to define these requirements in the form of the law, because their content is very broad and corresponds with the requirements for law in general, i.e. the content of the legal act must ensure that its aims are achieved, that it would regulate relations properly, that it would comply with constitutional and other principles, etc. Therefore, the requirements for the content of the legal act and at the same time for the content of the draft legal act are defined in the Constitution, LLF, and other laws through the hierarchy of legal acts, identification of principles, requirements to harmonise the draft legal act with various entities, prohibition of conflict of interests, and identification of the mechanism to prevent inappropriate legislation.

Perhaps the main requirements for constitutional regulations and all other legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania are embodied in the preamble of the Constitution: “the Lithuanian nation embodying the inborn right of each person and the People to live and create freely in the land of their fathers and forefathers – in the independent State of Lithuania, fostering national concord in the land of Lithuania, striving for an open, just, and harmonious civil society and law-governed State, by the will of the citizens of the reborn State of Lithuania, approves and declares this Constitution”. This means that all the legal system of the Republic of Lithuania must meet these requirements. In its ruling of 22 December 1995, the Constitutional Court stated that "Justice is one of the main aims of the law which is means for the regulation of social life. It is one of the most important moral values and the foundations of the rule of law. The aspiration for justice and the rule of law is enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution. Justice can be implemented in order to ensure the balance of interests, to avoid coincidences and lawlessness, instability of social life and conflict of interests. Justice cannot be achieved by recognising interests of only one group or one person while denying interests of other people”.

4.3.2.4 What is the hierarchy of legal acts?

Not only the provisions of the preamble of the Constitution but also the entire text of the Constitution form the basis for drafting legislation. As a result, the provisions of draft legal acts must be constructed so as not to violate the requirements of the Constitution when seeking a specific aim through legal regulation. Article 7(1) of the Constitution provides that any law or other statute that contradicts the Constitution is invalid.

It is necessary to observe the principle of the hierarchy of legal acts, i.e. a legal act allocated a lower position in the hierarchy must not conflict with a legal act occupying a higher position within the hierarchical system. The principle of legislative hierarchy is directly related to the principle of separation of powers. “Article 110 of the Constitution provides that judges may not apply laws that contradict the Constitution. Given the hierarchy of legal acts arising from the Constitution, this provision of the Constitution refers to the fact that judges may not enforce secondary legal acts that contradict the Constitution, and they may not enforce secondary legal acts that contradict the law. On the other hand, the said provision of the Constitution reflects the constitutional principle (one of the key elements of the rule of law entrenched in the Constitution) that no legal act can be enforced if it conflicts with a legal act occupying a higher position within the hierarchical system.

[...]

It has been mentioned that the legislative bodies must respect the principle of legislative hierarchy arising from the Constitution; they cannot replace a law with the secondary legal act or introduce new general legal acts that will compete with the law. Under the Constitution, legal regulations related to the definition of the content of human rights and freedoms or the guarantees of their implementation can be established only by the law. In the cases when the Constitution does not require legal regulation of relations concerning human rights, these relations may be regulated through secondary legal acts and the legal regulation in the secondary legal acts under no circumstances can compete with those established in the law” (ruling of 13 December 2004 of the Constitutional Court).

In its ruling of 19 December 1996, the Constitutional Court stated: “The doctrine of human rights and freedoms treats the state as the major guarantor of these rights and freedoms, and as the subject that may potentially violate these rights and freedoms. When actually implementing the principle of separation of powers, it is possible to reinforce guarantees of human rights. State governance may be divided into relatively independent branches: the legislative, executive and judicial. Different but nevertheless equally important roles fall to these powers in the sphere of major rights and freedoms. Every institution of power is granted competence corresponding to its purpose.

Article 67 of the Constitution consolidates the exclusive right of the Seimas to pass laws. The most important issues of public life are regulated by legal norms. Article 94(2) of the Constitution states that the Government must implement the laws and other resolutions of the Seimas. Secondary acts adopted by the Government present and specify legal norms in greater detail. Thus the main issues of the hierarchy of legal acts are consolidated in the Constitution.

It should be noted that the Constitutional Court, when judging the question of whether the Seimas may commission the Government to regulate relations related to human rights and freedoms, held in its ruling of 26 October 1995:

‘The delegation of the right of legislation to the Government must be legitimate, i.e. based on the provisions consolidated in the Constitution of the state. Since in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania the delegation of legislation is not provided for, the Government can adopt only secondary legal acts.

The regulatory limits of laws and secondary governing legal acts depend on many factors such as legal traditions and the level of political and legal culture in the society, but from the standpoint of both the theory of law and legislative practice, certain priority matters in a society must be regulated only by laws. In a democratic society, priority is given to the individual, and therefore everything that is related to fundamental human rights and freedoms is regulated by laws. That comprises the confirmation of human rights and freedoms, determination of their contents, legal guarantees of protection and defence, their permissible limitation, etc.’”

In addition to the Constitution, the Statute of the Seimas, and other legislative norms, the case-law of the Constitutional Court also determines the legislative hierarchy. In its ruling of 19 January 2005, the Constitutional Court stated: “in view of the primacy of the Constitution, the constitutional principle of the rule of law, and the hierarchy of legal acts entrenched in the Constitution, it must be stated that the Constitutional Court has the power granted by the Constitution and the Law on the Constitutional Court to investigate and rule on whether constitutional laws (or parts thereof) are in conflict with the Constitution, whether laws (or parts thereof) are in conflict with the Constitution and constitutional laws, whether secondary laws (or parts thereof) enacted by the Seimas are in conflict with the Constitution, constitutional laws, and laws, whether decrees (or parts thereof) of the President are in conflict with the Constitution, constitutional laws and laws, and whether Government regulations (or parts thereof) are in conflict with the Constitution, constitutional laws and laws”. It should be noted that the hierarchy of legal acts can be identified not only through the interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution in the case law of the Constitutional Court. The text of the Constitution directly specifies which legal acts have primacy. For example, Article 94(2) provides that the Government of the Republic of Lithuania must implement laws and resolutions of the Seimas concerning the implementation of laws and the decrees of the President.

Secondary legislation adopted by the Seimas, the decrees of the President, Government resolutions, and legal acts that are of lower legal standing than the laws must also comply with the principle of the hierarchy of legal acts and any non-compliance cannot go unchecked. The hierarchy of these legal acts is determined by the law. For example, Article 26(3)(2) of the Law on the Government states that a minister must ensure the implementation of the laws, international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, decrees of the President, Government resolutions, Government decisions, ordinances of the Prime Minister, and other legal acts. This means that the legal acts enacted by the minister must not conflict with the legislation that he must implement.

“The Law on Administrative Procedure stipulates the investigation of the compliance of legal acts that are of lower legal power than other laws, decrees of the President, and legal acts of the Government with legal acts of higher legal power.

Article 112(1) of the Law on Administrative Procedure provides that ‘ordinary or special courts have the right to suspend proceedings and request the administrative court to verify whether a particular normative administrative act (or part thereof) that should be applied in the proceedings in question corresponds to the law or Government regulation’. Article 20(1) of the Law on Administrative Procedure stipulates that the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania is ‘the only and final instance for the investigation of cases regarding the lawfulness of normative administrative acts adopted by state administrative bodies’.

It should be stated that the above provisions of the Law on Administrative Procedure determine the power of administrative courts, above all of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, to investigate the compliance of legal acts that are of lower legal standing than other laws, other legal acts enacted by the Seimas, decrees of the President, and legal acts of the Government with the Constitution and other laws. Exercising these powers, administrative courts are bound by the official constitutional doctrine defined in the legal acts of the Constitutional Court (rulings, conclusions and decisions)” (ruling of 20 September 2005 of the Constitutional Court).

Article 5(1) of the Law on Local Self-Government defines the hierarchy of legal acts at the municipal level. When implementing their independent functions, municipal governments are bound by statutory requirements and procedures, which, when they are stipulated in the law, are also specified in other legal acts (Paragraph 1). Municipal governments implementing state functions (functions delegated to municipal governments by the state) have statutory decision-making freedom, and in the activities of the municipal government, these functions are restricted by the decisions of public institutions and/or officials (Paragraph 2). In some cases state functions can be transferred to municipal governments on the basis of agreements, and therefore the legal acts adopted in relation to the implementation of the agreements will also be bound by the provisions of the agreements. Article 119(4) of the Constitution provides that local government councils must form executive bodies that are accountable to them for the direct implementation of the laws of the Republic of Lithuania and decisions of both the Government and the local government council.

4.3.2.5 What are legislative principles and why should they be observed?

Article 3(1) of the LLF stipulates that legislative principles express certain imperative requirements for the entities that participate in the legislative process in order to form a single, consistent, cohesive and effective legal system. According to Article 3(2) of the LLF, legislation is based on the following principles:

1) advisability, which means that a legal act must be drafted and subsequently enacted only when the aims cannot be achieved by other means;

2) proportionality, which means that the selected regulatory measures must carry as little administrative and other burden as possible and not restrict the legal relations of entities more than is necessary for the achievement of regulatory objectives;

3) respect for individual rights and freedoms, which means that the provisions of legal acts must ensure and not deny individual rights and freedoms and the legitimate interests entrenched in the Constitution, EU legislation, international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, the law of the Republic of Lithuania, and other legal acts;

4) openness and transparency, which means that the legislation must be public; legislative decisions related with common interests cannot be taken without public knowledge or without ensuring an opportunity for the public to take part in it. State policy objectives, the need for legal regulation, and the entities participating in legislation must be known to the public; conditions must be provided for the public and special interest groups to make proposals concerning legal regulations at all legislative stages. The entities that have initiated legislation, prepared draft legislation, and assessed the anticipated effects of legal regulation and the entities performing the monitoring of legal regulations must be made public;

5) efficiency, which means that during the drafting of a legal act all possible alternatives of legal regulation must be assessed and the best alternative must be selected. The measures that will ensure the achievement of the aims of legal regulation in the most efficient and cost-effective away must be ensured, proposals concerning legal regulation must be made public and assessed, and legislative actions must be carried out within a reasonable timeframe;

6) clarity, which means that the legal regulation stipulated in legal acts must be logical, consistent, concise, comprehensible, accurate, clear and unambiguous;

7) systematic nature, which means that legal norms must be mutually consistent, legal acts allocated to a lower position in the hierarchy must not conflict with legal acts occupying a higher position within the hierarchical system, and legal acts implementing laws must be drafted and adopted so as to take effect together with the law or the separate provisions of the law that the legal act implements.

The principles that apply in the legislative process are established not only in the LLF, but also in the Constitution, other legal acts, and the case law of the Constitutional Court. Usually these principles are entrenched not as legislative principles, but as the principles of different areas of law (e.g., probation, protection against domestic violence, the education system, etc.). These principles also become legislative principles, because when legal acts related to different areas of law are drafted, the requirements of the principles of these areas of law must be implemented.

The Constitutional Court has broadly analysed legal principles in its case law. For example, in its ruling of 12 July 2001, the Constitutional Court stated: “constitutional norms and principles cannot be interpreted on the basis of the acts enacted by the legislature or other legislative bodies, because this would deny the supremacy of the Constitution in the legal system”. The essence of the constitutional principle of a state under the rule of law is the rule of law. The constitutional imperative of the rule of law means that the freedom of the state is limited by the law, which all subjects of legal relations, including legislative bodies, must obey. It should be noted that the discretion of all legislative bodies is limited by the supreme law, the Constitution. All legal acts and decisions of all state and municipal authorities and officials must be in compliance with the Constitution and not contradict the Constitution (ruling of 13 December 2004 of the Constitutional Court).

The constitutional principle of a state under the rule of law implies various requirements for the legislature and other legislative bodies. Legislative bodies may pass legal acts only if they do not exceed their powers. The requirements established in legal acts must be based on general provisions (legal norms and principles) that can be applied to all the specified subjects of legal relations. Differentiated legal regulations must be based only on objective differences in the situation of subjects of public relations regulated by respective legal acts. To ensure that the subjects of legal relations know what the legal norms require from them, legal norms must be established in advance, published officially, and public and accessible. Legal regulations established in laws and other legal acts must be clear, easy to understand, and consistent, and the formulas in the legal acts must be explicit. The consistency and internal harmony of the legal system must be ensured, and legal acts may not contain any provisions that at the same time regulate the same public relations in a different manner. So that subjects of legal relations can orient their behaviour according to the requirements of the law, legal regulations must be relatively stable, and legal acts may not require the impossible (lex non cogit ad impossibilia). The power of legal acts is directed to the future, while retroactive validity of laws and other legal acts is not permitted (lex retro non agit) unless the legal act mitigates the situation of the subject of legal relations and does not injure other subjects of legal relations (lex benignior retro agit). Violations of the law for which liability is established in legal acts must be clearly defined. When setting legal restrictions and liability for violations of the law, one must pay heed to the requirement of reasonableness and the principle of proportionality, according to which the established legal measures are seen as necessary in a democratic society and suitable for achieving legitimate and universally important objectives (there must be a balance between the objectives and measures), they may not restrict the rights of the person more than is necessary in order to achieve the said objectives, and if these legal measures carry sanctions for the violation of the law, the sanctions must be proportionate to the violation of the law. When public relations are legally regulated, it is compulsory to pay heed to the requirements of natural justice, which among other things constitutes the necessity to ensure the equality of persons before the law, the court and state institutions and officials. When issuing legal acts, one must pay heed to procedural law-making requirements, including those established by the legislative body itself; etc. (ruling of 13 December 2004 of the Constitutional Court).

The principle of the recognition of the innate nature of human rights and freedoms is revealed in various articles of the Constitution that establish certain human rights and freedoms. This principle is also one of the constitutional bases of the Republic of Lithuania as a democratic state under the rule of law: one of the most important objectives of a democratic state is to defend and protect these rights and freedoms. The innate nature of human rights and freedoms stipulated in the Constitution requires the legislature and other legislative bodies to observe human rights and freedoms when issuing legal acts that regulate relations between individuals and the state, to establish sufficient measures to protect and defend human rights and freedoms, in no way to violate these rights and freedoms, and to prevent others from violating these rights and freedoms (ruling of 29 December 2004 of the Constitutional Court).

4.3.2.6 Is the future legal regulation taken into account when drafting a legal act?

When a legal act is drafted, it is not sufficient to formally comply only with the drafting rules and principles, but it is necessary to model the regulatory mechanism and the expected regulatory impact on public relations and to predict potential consequences.

Article 15 of the LLF governs the assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact. When drafting a legal act that will regulate relations that have been previously unregulated or that will essentially change legal regulations, an assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact must be carried out. The amount of detail of the assessment must be in proportion to the anticipated consequences of the legal regulation. The decision concerning assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact is taken by the promoter of the draft legislation (Article 15(1) of the LLF). During the assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact, a potential positive and negative effect on the regulatory domain and individuals or groups whom the legal regulation will apply to is identified. Given the nature and extent of the legal regulation in the new legal act, the impact on the economy, public finances, social environment, public administration, legal system, crime situation, extent of corruption, environment, administrative burden, regional development, and other areas must be assessed ( Article 15 (2) of the LLF ).

The results of the assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact of a draft law or a draft legal act by the Seimas are provided in the cover letter or a separate document. The results of the assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact of other draft legal acts are provided according to the procedure established by the Government or its designated institution or municipal council or its designated institution (Article 15(3) of the LLF).

Article 135(3)(4)-(7) and 135(12) of the Statute of the Seimas require that a cover letter must be submitted together with a draft law. The cover letter must specify what new provisions of legal regulation are proposed and positive outcomes are foreseen, results of the assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact (where such assessment must be conducted when drafting laws and the results are not provided in a separate document), possible negative consequences of the enacted law and the measures that should be applied in order to avoid these consequences, what influence the enacted law could have on the crime situation and corruption, how the implementation of the law could influence business conditions and business development, and the amount of money the implementation of the law could require or could allow to be saved (assessments must cover the following year and beyond).

The assessment of a future legal regulation is regulated and approved by the Government in the Methodology for Anticipated Regulatory Impact Assessment. It should be noted that this methodology is not mandatory for all public institutions and agencies. Pursuant to the Government resolution “On the approval of the Methodology for Anticipated Regulatory Impact Assessment”, ministers and other managers of institutions subordinate to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania are instructed, when drafting orders and other legal acts within the area of their competence, to follow the provisions of the Methodology for Anticipated Regulatory Impact Assessment and provide impact assessment results according to the procedure specified in the methodology. Meanwhile, managers of other state and municipal institutions and agencies are only suggested to observe the methodology when drafting legal acts within the area of their competence. State institutions that are not accountable to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania are also suggested to provide methodological assistance concerning the assessment of anticipated regulatory impact according to their area of competence.

This methodology defines impact assessment principles and aspects in detail, regulates the impact assessment process, and includes the questionnaire according to the aspects of the anticipated impact of legal regulation.

The methodology does not regulate assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact on the extent of corruption. According to Article 16 of the LLF, the assessment of the anticipated regulatory impact on the extent of corruption (anti-corruption assessment of legal acts and draft legal acts) is conducted in the cases specified in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Prevention of Corruption. The procedure for this assessment is established by the Government.

Article 8 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption directly applies to the anti-corruption assessment of legal acts and draft legal acts. It identifies the cases in which the promoter of a draft legal act must conduct the anti-corruption assessment of the draft legal act. It stipulates that when the anti-corruption assessment of legal acts and draft legal acts must be carried out, it is conducted by the Special Investigation Service on its own initiative or as proposed by the President, the Speaker of the Seimas, the Prime Minister, or a committee, a commission or a group of the Seimas. State institutions and educational institutions may be involved in conducting the anti-corruption assessment of legal acts and draft legal acts. The anti-corruption assessment of legal acts and draft legal acts (anti-corruption assessment report) is provided to the organisation that has enacted the legal act, the state or municipal institutions that have initiated enactment, or the promoter of the draft legal act who then decides whether the legal act must be improved.

Order No. 2-117 “On approval of the description of the procedure for the anti-corruption assessment of legal acts and draft legal acts by the Special Investigation Service of the Republic of Lithuania” of 4 April 2013 of the director of the Special Investigation Service establishes the procedure for the anti-corruption assessment of legal acts by the Special Investigation Service.

4.3.2.7 Are public opinion and comments taken into account when drafting a legal act?

When drafting a legal act, public opinion, comments, and positions on certain issues must be taken into account. The LLF establishes consultations with the public. They are important not only during the drafting, but also during all other stages of the legislative process to implement the principle of openness and transparency.

Article 2(2) of the LLF provides that consultations with the public must involve the actions of the entities that introduce legislative initiatives, draft legal acts, enact legal acts, and carry out the monitoring of legal regulations. These actions include introducing legislative initiatives, submitting draft legal acts to the public for familiarisation, providing information about the monitoring of legal regulations, assessing proposals, and publishing the results of assessment. The public is informed about the beginning of public consultations. According to Article 17(5) of the LLF, when consultations with the public concerning a draft legal act take place, the results of the public consultations, comments from the entities to which the draft legal act was provided for conclusions, and assessment of proposals must be submitted to the entity that enacts the legal act.

Detailed regulations for consultations with the public are provided in Article 7 of the LLF. It states that the aims of the consultations with the public are to ensure the openness and transparency of the legislative process, to find out the opinion of the public about the problems of legal regulations and about possible solutions, to provide an opportunity for the public to influence the content of draft legal acts, to better assess the positive and negative consequences of a proposed legal regulation and the costs to implement it, and to submit proposals concerning legislative initiatives and draft legal acts announced on the Legislative Information System and legal regulations that are being monitored. It is important for the consultations with the public to take place at the appropriate time and on substantive issues (efficiency of consultations) and also for the consultations to be conducted to the extent they are necessary (proportionality of consultations). The ways the consultations with the public are conducted and the ways to record the results of consultations are selected by the entities that initiate these consultations.

4.3.2.8 Why are concepts of legal acts prepared?

The provisions for the preparation of the concepts of legal regulation and the assessment of anticipated regulatory impact are intended to ensure that when legal acts are enacted all possible regulatory alternatives are taken into account and that the best alternative is selected. The LLF, unlike the legal regulation prior to the adoption of the LLF, does not mention when the concepts of the proposed legal regulation should be prepared. According to Article 12(1) of the LLF, prior to the introduction of a new legal regulation or when substantially changing an existing legal regulation, a concept of the proposed legal regulation may be prepared. This concept should provide an analysis of the current situation, the problems addressed, the aim of the proposed legal regulation, the principles and main provisions, the possible positive and negative implications of the proposed legal regulation, the provisions supporting the proposed legal regulation, and other important information. According to Article 5(1)(6) of the LLF, the concepts of the proposed legal regulations are published and administered in the Legislative Information System.

The law does not specify who takes the decision to develop a concept, but only specifies that the concept of the proposed legal regulation is approved by the entity that takes the decision regarding the preparation of the concept. The law does not specify which entity it is, what its legal status is, or what act should approve the concept. The decision to prepare a concept of a legal act should be taken by the entity that has introduced the legislative initiative and if this requirement does not apply to the entity, then the decision should be taken by the entity that prepares the draft legal act.

The LLF and other acts do not specify what kind of acts and of what legal power should approve the concept. Given that the concept is defined as a deliberate plan of action, planned activity, and a concept and that the law does not specify requirements for the initiator of the concept, the concept can be approved by different kinds of legal acts, e.g. a concept that proposes amending a law is approved by the Government. Of course, the approved concept must not go beyond the logic of legal requirements. If a concept for the amendment of a legal act is approved by a legal act that is low in the hierarchy of the legal system, but the entity that approved the concept for that amendment cannot initiate any such amendment, the concept would be meaningless. For example, a municipal council should not approve a concept that calls for the amendment of the Constitution, because the municipal council has no legal power to initiate that type of amendment.

A concept is not a mandatory legal act, because the duty to prepare concepts, even if they were not needed and advisable, would only increase financial and time costs for the preparation of a draft legal act.

The law also requires that in the event of substantial legal, social, financial, and economic changes or other important circumstances that render the provisions of the concept for the proposed legal regulation irrelevant, inappropriate, or unable to be implemented, the concept of the proposed legal regulation must be modified or declared invalid (Article 12(3) of the LLF). This provision of the LLF seeks to eliminate from the legal system any irrelevant or out-dated legal acts or legal acts devoid of legal content. This requirement should be applied not only to concepts, but also to other legal acts.

4.4 HOW ARE LEGAL ACTS ENACTED?

Article 4(1)(3) of the LLF states that enactment of a legal act is the third stage of the legislative process. The LLF devotes only a portion of one article (Article 18(1) and (2) of the LLF) to disclose this stage. The law stipulates that legal acts are enacted by entities that have the mandate to do so. The enacted legal act cannot be revised, except for spelling or grammar errors that are identified after adoption of the legal act and that do not change the content or meaning of the legal act.

Although the provisions of the law are quite concise, this stage can be very broad both in terms of the actions to be performed and the time needed, depending on the entity that enacts the draft legal act. This stage is governed by many legal acts of different legal power intended to regulate the activities of legislative bodies, e.g. the Constitution, the Law on the Office of President, the Statute of the Seimas, the Law on the Government, the Law on Local Self-Government, etc. The stage of enacting a legal act is directly related to the stage of preparing a legal act since the enacting entity can improve the draft legal act. For example, Article 150(1)(1) of the Statute of the Seimas specifies one of the decisions that is adopted and presented for consideration at a sitting of the Seimas, namely the decision to approve both a draft law improved by the committee and the committee’s conclusions.

The law does not reveal which processes and actions constitute the enactment of a draft legal act and which ones are carried out after the draft legal act is drafted and submitted to the body entitled to enact it, but before signing. The enactment stage may consist of a number of clearly identifiable and defined actions, e.g. a discussion of the legal act and enactment at a plenary session of the Seimas, but may also consist of some less visible actions, e.g. when the legal act is enacted by the President of the Republic.

As has already been mentioned, legal acts that regulate the activities of entities also stipulate what legal acts they can enact. Article 9(1) of the Law on the Office of President stipulates that exercising the mandate granted to him/her, the President issues legislative decrees, while according to Article 9(3), the President issues ordinances concerning the organisation of the internal work of the Office of the President as well as in other statutory cases. Ordinances are legal acts of a non-regulatory nature. The law does not specify the procedure for the enactment of legal acts issued by the President in greater detail.

Meanwhile, the legislative process at the Seimas is very broad and particularly complex. The vast majority of the regulations of the Statute define the procedure for the consideration and adoption of legal acts enacted by the Seimas. Although one of the stages in the legislative procedure at the Seimas is also called enactment, according to the meaning, the enactment stage regulated by the LLF also includes other legislative stages at the Seimas. There could be a relative division into several main legislative stages at the Seimas: presentation of a legal act at a sitting of the Seimas, consideration of the legal act by Seimas committees, consideration of the legal act at a sitting of the Seimas, and enactment of the legal act at a sitting of the Seimas. This division is conditional, because each stage is accompanied by a wide variety of decisions and actions, and consideration and adoption of different legal acts is subject to exceptions, differences, and special rules.

In its ruling of 19 June 2002, the Constitutional Court stated that Article 67(2) of the Constitution provides that the Seimas enacts laws. The enactment of laws is one of the main functions of the Seimas as a representative of the nation, its competence under the Constitution. When enacting laws (Article 67(2) of the Constitution) and establishing the structure and procedure of its activities (Article 76 of the Constitution), the Seimas has the competence under the Constitution to specify and provide in greater detail the procedure that is stipulated in the Constitution for enacting, signing and promulgating the legal acts adopted by the Seimas or by referendum. In doing so, the Seimas must not violate the provisions of the Constitution.

Legal regulations concerning the consideration and enactment of a draft legal act are set out in various articles of the Statute of the Seimas and are linked to the regulations that govern other legal relations. For example, Article 9 and 10 of the Statute of the Seimas, which are dedicated to the rights and obligations of MPs, contain important provisions concerning the consideration and enactment of legal acts, i.e. voting on all issues being considered at sittings of the Seimas, committee or commission of which he is a member; participating in discussions concerning all issues under consideration and presenting his motions, observations, and amendments vocally or in writing; proposing issues to the Seimas for consideration; preparing and submitting drafts of laws and other legislative acts to the Seimas for consideration, as well as making motions concerning the laws that are to be debated in the Seimas; obtaining, directly or through an assistant, copies of registered drafts of laws, copies of laws and other acts passed by the Seimas, decisions and draft decisions of the Speaker of the Seimas, the Board of the Seimas, and the Assembly of Elders, drafts of the legislative acts prepared by the Government, resolutions passed by other state governmental and administrative institutions, and legislative acts of public officers; attending the sittings of all Seimas committees and commissions and Government sittings, when necessary, attend sittings of state governmental and administrative institutions at which issues submitted by him are discussed, as well as, on advance notice, other sittings at which the issues he is interested in are discussed, except the sittings concerning state secrets, which have a procedure for consideration that is established by law; and attending sittings of the Seimas and participating in the work of committees. Regulations that govern the consideration and enactment of legal acts are present in all eight parts of the Statute of the Seimas, and Part Five (Legislative Procedure) is dedicated directly to the consideration and enactment of legal acts. Article 135(6) of the Statute of the Seimas stipulates that the requirements of Part Five, with the exception of those regarding submission of a cover letter, are applied to all draft laws and other draft normative acts of the Seimas (hereinafter in this section – draft laws), except in the special instances stipulated by this Statute.

Under Article 135(1) of the Statute of the Seimas, drafts of laws and other legal acts that are adopted by the Seimas, as well as the proposals concerning this legislation, are submitted to the Seimas for consideration by the institutions and individuals who, pursuant to the Constitution, have the right of legislative initiative. All draft laws, proposals, and documents accompanying the draft submitted to the Seimas must be registered at the secretariat of the Seimas sittings (Article 136(1) of the Statute of the Seimas). After the registration of the draft legal act, various further actions are carried out, e.g. no later than 7 business days from the date of receipt of the registered draft law, the Legal Department of the Office of the Seimas prepares conclusions concerning whether the draft law complies with the Constitution, the law, legislative principles, and technical legislative rules and whether the accompanying documents comply with the requirements of the Statute. Where the draft law is submitted by MPs, the President, or citizens, it is sent to the Legal Department of the Ministry of Justice, which no later than within 10 business days from the date of receipt, must conclude whether the project is in line with EU law, etc.

When the required conclusions concerning the draft legal act are provided and other actions required by the Statute of the Seimas are carried out, the legal act may be presented at a sitting of the Seimas. A draft of a law or any other draft act is presented at the sitting of the Seimas by the initiator or its representative (representative of the President of the Republic, Prime Minister, the minister or vice minister delegated by the Government, or a citizens’ representative), who must give a brief (maximum 10 minutes) characterisation of the draft and answer the questions of MPs (up to 10 minutes) (Article 141(1) of the Statute of the Seimas). Thereafter, the presiding officer must familiarise the members with the conclusions provided by the Legal Department of the Office of the Seimas, Seimas committees, the Government, and the Bureau of European Law under the Ministry of Justice if conclusions have been received and must put proposals to the vote. A draft law presented by citizens must be submitted at a Seimas sitting no later than one week after its registration during a session of the Seimas and if registered between Seimas sessions, during the initial sitting of the next session (Article 142 of the Statute of the Seimas). Under Article 143(1) of the Statute of the Seimas, the Seimas must adopt one of the following decisions concerning the submitted draft law or any other draft act of the Seimas: 1) to start the procedure of consideration of the draft; 2) to postpone the procedure of submitting the draft and to specify the actions to be taken by the initiators prior to repeated submission of the draft to the Seimas; 3) to reject the draft by specifying the reasons for the rejection. The procedure for consideration of the draft consists of the following: consideration at the principal committee, consideration at the sitting of the Seimas, and enactment (Article 144(1) of the Statute of the Seimas). Having decided to start the procedure of consideration of a draft law, the Seimas must at the same sitting set an approximate date for consideration at a sitting of the Seimas (no earlier than after a week and no later than by the end of the session) and establish the principal committee and additional committees for further consideration or improvement of the draft. The proposal concerning the date of the preliminary consideration, the principal committee, and additional committees is discussed and submitted to the Seimas for approval by the Assembly of Elders (Article 144(2) of the Statute of the Seimas).

During consideration in the principal committee, one of the following decisions must be adopted and subsequently presented during the consideration of a draft at the Seimas sitting: 1) to approve both the draft law submitted by the initiators (or the draft law revised by the committee) and committee conclusions, 2) to approve or not to approve the amendments of the draft law received from persons having the right of legislative initiative (amendments that have been approved are included in the draft law revised by the committee; all of the amendments received from these persons must be included in the conclusions of the committee); 3) to suspend considerations in the committee and return the draft law and conclusions for revision to those who prepared the conclusions and who must take the actions indicated by the committee; 4) to present the draft to the public for consideration; 5) to return the draft to its initiators for revision; and 6) to reject the draft (Article 150(1) of the Statute of the Seimas).

Chapter Twenty-Two in Part Five regulates consideration of the draft legal act in the Seimas. After consideration in the Seimas, the Seimas decides whether to: 1) approve the draft law approved by the committee with the amendments adopted during a Seimas sitting and in at least 2 business days to assign a date for enactment of the law; 2) to present the draft to the public for consideration. In such a case the procedure is repeated starting from consideration in the principal committee; or 3) to return the draft to the principal committee for revision. If this decision is adopted, a resolution of the Seimas must be adopted simultaneously and must contain specific instructions about what the principal committee must amend. The MP who makes the proposal to return the draft to the principal committee for revision must prepare the draft resolution. In this instance the procedure is repeated starting from consideration in the principal committee. Such a decision may only be adopted once in the course of considering a draft; 4) to adjourn the consideration of the draft if the consideration is not finished at the same sitting or if it becomes clear that MPs require additional information necessary for consideration of the draft or according to the procedure established by Article 109 of the Statute; 5) to return the draft to the initiators for fundamental revision. In this case, the procedure of the consideration of the draft law is repeated starting from its presentation at a Seimas sitting; 6) to reject the project and, if necessary, to commission a new one (Article 153 of the Statute of the Seimas).

The next stage in the legislative process at the Seimas is the enactment of the draft legal act. The principal committee must submit a draft law that has been newly edited by the Documents Department of the Office of the Seimas to the Seimas for adoption. The Legal Department of the Office of the Seimas must also provide conclusions concerning the draft (Article 155(1) of the Statute of the Seimas). Article 156 of the Statute of the Seimas provides that draft laws are usually enacted at an ordinary session during the morning sitting only on Thursdays (Paragraph 1). During enactment of a law, the reporter must briefly discuss any additional proposals or amendments that have been received and indicate who provided them (Paragraph 2). Subsequently, individual sections of the draft law must be put to a vote. Unless the Seimas decides otherwise, articles are enacted in sequence (Paragraph 3). After all the articles of the law have been considered, the entire draft law is put to a vote (Article 159(2) of the Statute of the Seimas). The enacted legal act is then signed according to the procedure stipulated in the law.

The Statute of the Seimas also provides a special procedure for consideration and enactment of legal acts in certain special cases, e.g. considering legal acts according to urgent and especially urgent procedures; considering a law returned by the President; considering amendments to the Constitution; considering constitutional laws; approving the state budget; considering and taking decisions on EU matters; ratifying and denouncing international treaties; considering interpellations or a motion of no confidence with respect to the Government; and considering draft legal acts prepared during the impeachment process.

Article 4(1) of the Law on the Government states that draft laws, Government resolutions and legal acts, and draft concepts of regulatory legal acts are considered and enacted or the drafts of the laws and resolutions of the Seimas are approved according to the procedure established in the Rules of Procedure of the Government. Government resolutions are adopted at Government sittings by a majority vote of all members of the Government (Article 41(1) of the Law on the Government). Government decisions and resolutions are adopted at Government sittings by a majority vote of the Government members present at the sitting (Article 41¹(1) of the Law on the Government). After discussing the positions of the Republic of Lithuania concerning proposals to adopt EU legal acts, the Government may adopt decisions with respect to certain documents and may adopt resolutions with respect to other EU documents (Article 41¹(3) of the Law on the Government).

The Prime Minister passes ordinances or urgent decisions/instructions in the form of resolutions (Lith. rezoliucija) within the area of his competence on organisational, personal and other issues (Article 43 of the Law on the Government).

The process for the Government to adopt legal acts is regulated in greater detail in the Rules of Procedure of the Government. Clause 3 of the Rules of Procedure provides that the Government solves the issues of governing the state at Government sittings and adopts decisions by a majority vote of all members of the Government. The stage in which the Government enacts legal acts also includes harmonisation of draft legal acts with institutional stakeholders, because the Rules of Procedure speak about submission of a prepared draft legal act for harmonisation or about the “draft legal acts being prepared”. Clause 23 stipulates that the prepared draft legal acts are provided for harmonisation to the institutional stakeholders specified in Clause 32. Institutional stakeholders submit conclusions concerning the draft legal acts. The Rules of Procedure also specify the timeframe in which the conclusions must be submitted by the institutions.

Following harmonisation, the draft legal act is submitted to the Government. Clause 54 of the Rules of Procedure of the Government establishes that the submission document with which a draft legal act is submitted to the Government, depending on who submits it, must be signed by the Prime Minister, a minister (or a vice-minister delegated by the minister and, in the absence of the minister, by the acting minister), a mayor, or another entity (or the manager of that entity) that has a statutory mandate to submit draft legal acts. The Rules of Procedure also establish requirements for the submission process and the submission of annexes. Draft legal acts submitted to the Government, with the exception of draft Government decisions and Government resolutions, are assessed by the Office of the Government (Clause 63).

Draft legal acts (excluding those related to state or official secrets) assessed according to the standard procedure by the Office of the Government are then usually discussed at the meeting of the representatives of the ministries (vice-ministers, secretaries of the ministries) prior to including them on the Government agenda for a sitting (Clause 69). After the meeting the draft may be amended. The most important issues may, prior to the Government sitting, be discussed at Government meetings (meetings are convened and chaired by the Prime Minister). Draft legal acts that were subject to disagreements that failed to be resolved, legal acts regarding the position of the Republic of Lithuania concerning proposals to adopt EU legal acts and other EU documents, reports provided to the Government, the Government position regarding issues to be discussed at the Tripartite Council, conclusions and recommendations provided by Government commissions and working groups formed by the Prime Minister, and other information provided to the Government may also be discussed at the Government meetings. Prioritised legislative initiatives and their impact assessment results may also be discussed at Government meetings. The secretary general of the Government may propose that the Prime Minister should not introduce a prioritised legislative initiative and its impact assessment results to be considered at a Government meeting if the impact assessment has not been conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Methodology for Anticipated Regulatory Impact Assessment (Clause 81).

According to Clause 88 and 89 of the Rules of Procedure of the Government, with regard to the comments provided by the representatives of the ministries (vice ministers, secretaries general of ministries) at the meeting, the opinion of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Justice, and the results of discussions about the draft legal act at the Government meeting (if the draft legal act was discussed at the Government meeting), the secretary general of the Government asks the Prime Minister for approval to include the relevant draft legal acts on the agenda of a Government sitting. Upon the Prime Minister’s approval, the draft legal acts are included on the agenda of the Government sitting and the secretary general of the Government prepares a draft agenda for the sitting. Draft legal acts are discussed and decisions about them are taken at the Government sitting. Decisions adopted at the Government sitting are documented as decisions (Lith. nutarimas) (Clause 109).

Article 26(3)(5) of the Law on the Government provides that a minister issues orders and when necessary several ministers may issue a joint order. Laws, regulations and rules of procedure regulate how managers of Government agencies, agencies at ministries, and other institutions adopt legal acts. The regulations of ministries repeat the provision specified in Article 26(3)(5) of the Law on the Government that the minister issues orders and, where necessary, several ministers may issue a joint order. The rules of procedure of ministries specify the orders that ministers issue and the adoption stage in greater detail.

Enactment of legal acts by other public institutions and agencies is regulated by the law, e.g. the Law on the Constitutional Court.

The decision-making procedures of municipal councils are regulated by Article 13(9) of the Law on Local Self-Government. Decisions of municipal councils are taken at meetings of the council by a majority vote of the members of the council present at the meeting. If the votes are equal, the mayor has the deciding vote. If the mayor is absent from the meeting and there is a tie, it is considered that a decision has not been taken. Voting on the issues discussed at meetings of the municipal council is open, except when the mayor, the deputy mayor, the director of the municipal administration, or deputy directors of the municipal administration are elected and when the issue of no confidence in the mayor, deputy mayor, the director of the municipal administration, or deputy directors of the municipal administration is being resolved. Secret voting is also possible according to the procedure specified in the Rules of Procedure in the cases when the chairman of the audit committee, vice-chairman of the audit committee, chairman of the administrative commission, and chairman of the ethics commission are appointed and when the issue of no confidence in the chairman of the audit committee, vice-chairman of the audit committee, chairman of the administrative commission, and chairman of the ethics commission is discussed. The information about the voting of each member of the municipal council, except for a secret ballot, is open. The results of voting by members of the municipal council are stored in information media and published on the municipal government’s website.

Enactment of legal acts by other municipal institutions and agencies is regulated by the Law on Local Self-Government and other laws, provisions of the laws, and other legal acts.

4.5 MUST THE ENACTED LEGAL ACT BE SIGNED BY ANYONE?

Article 4(1)(4) of the LLF provides that the last (the fourth) stage of the legislative process is the signing and promulgation of a legal act. According to Article 18(3) of the LLF, the enacted legal acts must be signed according to the procedure stipulated in legal acts by the entities that have such a mandate. Enacted legal acts, except for the laws and other legal acts signed by the President of the Republic, may be signed in the Legislative Information System by using a secure electronic signature.

Decree No. 1K -1143 “On the return of the Law on the Legislative Framework of the Republic of Lithuania enacted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania for repeat consideration” of 9 July 2012 of the President of the Republic of Lithuania reveals why the law provides for a different procedure of signing legal acts. Article 1(4) of the decree states: “Implementation of the mandate of the head of state related to signing legal acts enacted in the country, given the legal importance of this action and the special legal status of the head of state, is in all countries traditionally associated with the head of state signing the actual text of a legal act and retaining the document as having importance to the country’s legal system, history, and academia. Only in this way is it ensured that the head of state signs the legal act rather than another person. This is how the authenticity of the legal act is guaranteed. It should be noted that the security of an electronic signature can be maintained only by regularly allocating quite a large amount of money to the maintenance and upgrade of information systems. Even an expensive information system does not rule out doubts about the authenticity of a signature on a legal act, however. Even the countries most advanced in information technology have not renounced the signing of legal acts with the original handwritten signature of the authorised person. The fact that technical capacities provide conditions for the transfer of the legislative process to the virtual space and the use of an electronic signature does not mean that without exception all laws and other legal acts in the country must be digitally signed. Currently there are no legal, political or financial arguments to justify the necessity or the imminent need for laws and legal acts to be signed only digitally”. The President also formulated proposals that were taken into consideration and the enacted law was amended by setting the standard discussed.

The signing of legal acts has been examined by the Constitutional Court, which in its ruling of 19 June 2002 stated: “Observing the procedure entrenched in Articles 70 and 71, Article 84(24) and Article 149 of the Constitution for the signing, official promulgation, and entry into force of laws and other legal acts enacted by the Seimas is an important prerequisite for ensuring the primacy of the Constitution.

Article 7(2) of the Constitution states: ‘Only laws that are promulgated are valid’. The signing and the official announcement, i.e. the promulgation of laws, constitute the final stage of the legislative process. The signing and the official promulgation of laws are compulsory conditions for their entry into force.

According to the Constitution, no law can be formally promulgated and enter into force if it has not been signed by an official specified in the Constitution according to the established procedure; neither can it be officially promulgated and enter into force if it has been signed by an official who has no such mandate according to the Constitution”.

The procedure for the signing, official promulgation, and entry into force of laws and other legal acts enacted by the Seimas is enshrined not only in Article 71 of the Constitution, but also in Article 70, Article 84(2) and Article 149 of the Constitution.

Article 71 of the Constitution provides that within ten days of receiving a law passed by the Seimas, the President must either sign and officially promulgate the law or must refer it back to the Seimas together with relevant reasons for reconsideration (Paragraph 1). In the event that the law enacted by the Seimas is not referred back or signed by the President within the established period, the law becomes effective when the chairperson of the Seimas signs and official promulgates it (Paragraph 2). The President must, within five days, sign and officially promulgate laws and other acts adopted by referendum (Paragraph 3). In the event that the President does not sign and promulgate these laws within the established period, the laws become effective after being signed and officially promulgated by the chairperson of the Seimas (Paragraph 4).

Article 70 of the Constitution states that laws enacted by the Seimas must be enforced after the President signs and official promulgates, unless the laws themselves establish a later enforcement date (Paragraph 1). Other acts adopted by the Seimas and the Statute of the Seimas must be signed by the chairperson of the Seimas. These acts become effective the day following their promulgation, unless the acts themselves provide for another procedure of enforcement (Paragraph 2).

Article 84(24) of the Constitution provides that the President must sign and promulgate laws enacted by the Seimas or refer them back to the Seimas according to the procedure provided for in Article 71 of the Constitution.

Article 149 of the Constitution states that an adopted law amending the Constitution must be signed by the President of the Republic and officially promulgated within five days.

If the President of the Republic of Lithuania does not sign and promulgate such a law on time, the law becomes effective when the chairperson of the Seimas signs and promulgates it.

“Signing and officially promulgating the laws enacted by the Seimas (within the time specified in Article 71 of the Constitution) and the laws adopted by referendum is the area of competence of the President. The President has the constitutional mandate to sign and officially promulgate laws and therefore participate in the legislative process” (ruling of 19 January 1994 of the Constitutional Court).

Within ten days of receiving a law passed by the Seimas, the President must either sign and officially promulgate the law or must refer it back to the Seimas together with relevant reasons for reconsideration (Article 71(1) of the Constitution), i.e. the President has a return veto. The Constitution does not give the President a return veto with respect to laws enacted by referendum or laws amending the Constitution. Under the Constitution, the President has such a right only with respect to the laws enacted by the Seimas, with the exception of laws amending the Constitution. When using the return veto, the President may also make proposals concerning how the law enacted by the Seimas but not signed by the President could be amended or supplemented. According to Article 72(1) of the Constitution, the Seimas may reconsider and enact laws that have been referred back by the President. After reconsideration by the Seimas, a law shall be deemed enacted if the amendments and supplements submitted by the President were adopted or if more than one-half of all the members of the Seimas vote in the affirmative If it is a constitutional law, then at least three-fifths of all the members of the Seimas must vote in the affirmative (Paragraph 2). The President must, within three days, sign and immediately officially promulgate laws re-enacted by the Seimas (Paragraph 2). According to the Constitutional Court, this ratio of power between the President and the Seimas “is an important aspect of the principle of the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution" (ruling of 19 June 2002 of the Constitutional Court).

According to Article 29(1)(2) of the Statute of the Seimas, within ten days of the adoption of a law by the Seimas, the Speaker of the Seimas must certify with his signature the authenticity of the text and refer it to the President to sign. Authentication by signing is not signing the law; the Speaker of the Seimas can sign laws only in the cases specified in the Constitution.

The Statute of the Seimas provides for a special aspect in the legislative process, the withholding of the signing of the law. This is regulated by Article 160 of the Statute of the Seimas:

“1. Before the adopted law is submitted to the President of the Republic for signing, the Speaker of the Seimas, a committee, or at least one-fifth of the members of the Seimas may submit the Seimas a reasoned motion in writing concerning the violations of the Statute of the Seimas committed, in their opinion, during the adoption of the law.

2. If such a motion is received, the Commission for Ethics and Procedures must no later than within five business days present its conclusions and proposals to the Seimas.

3. Until the Commission for Ethics and Procedures presents these conclusions, the Speaker of the Seimas may not forward the law to the President of the Republic for signing.

4. In the event that the Commission for Ethics and Procedures states that the legislative procedure or any other significant provisions of this Statute were grossly violated and this conditioned the decision of the Seimas or in the event that the Commission for Ethics and Procedures has not submitted its conclusions in accordance with the procedure specified in paragraph 2 of this Article, the Seimas must vote to decide whether to repeal the disputed law or to leave it in effect.

5. If in this case the Seimas repeals the disputed law, the debate on its draft must usually be repeated from the stage at which the violation was committed”.

The President signs not only laws, but also other legal acts attributed to his or her area of competence. Article 10(1) of the Law on the Office of President provides that when exercising the powers vested in him, the President signs decrees on his or her own account, except for the cases specified in paragraph 2 of this article. According to Article 2 of the Law on the Office of President “[d]ecrees of the President of the Republic on issues specified in Article 85 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania must be co-signed by:

1) the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania – concerning the appointment and recall of diplomatic representatives of the Republic of Lithuania in foreign states and international organisations;

2) the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania – concerning the conferment of the highest diplomatic ranks and special titles;

3) the Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania – concerning the conferment of highest military ranks;

4) the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania – concerning the declaration of a state of emergency;

5) the Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania – concerning the granting of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania”.

In its ruling of 30 December 2003, the Constitutional Court stated: “the said provision of Article 85 of the Constitution provides an additional condition in the presence of which the decrees of the President of the Republic specified in Article 3 Paragraphs 3, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution can lead to legal consequences: such decrees must be signed by the Prime Minister or a relevant minister. In the theory of law this is called a counter-signature.

Article 5(1) of the Constitution provides which institutions exercise the powers of the state and also specifies that ‘the President of the Republic and Government’ exercise the powers of the state. According to the Constitution, the President is a part of the executive power of the Republic (ruling of 10 January of 1998 of the Constitutional Court). Article 84 and other articles of the Constitution specify various powers vested in the President of the Republic, which are exercised through the issue of Presidential decrees. Under the Constitution, most of the decrees of the President of the Republic are not signed by the Prime Minister or a minister. According to the Constitution, the Prime Minister or the relevant minister signs only those decrees that are specified in Article 84 Paragraph 3, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution. Such constitutional regulation means that the obligations of the President entrenched in Article 84 Paragraph 3, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution are considered to be a particularly important area of executive power and that under the Constitution, the President of the Republic cannot individually and without the approval of the relevant member of the Government exercise the said obligations. Such constitutional regulation reflects the system of checks and balances in the exercise of the executive power.

When disclosing the content of the provision of Article 85 of the Constitution that the ‘[d]ecrees of the President, specified in items 3, 15, 17, and 21 of Article 84 of the Constitution, are valid only if they bear the signature of the Prime Minister or an appropriate minister’ it should be noted that it cannot be interpreted in isolation from the rest of this article, specifically from the provision that the ‘[r]esponsibility for such decrees lies with the Prime Minister or the minister who signed it’.

Given that the responsibility for the decrees of the President of the Republic of Lithuania specified in Article 84 Paragraph 3, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution lies with the Prime Minister or the minister who signed it, it must be concluded that under Article 85 of the Constitution, the Prime Minister or the minister have the right and duty to decide whether to sign the decree of the President or not. The Prime Minister or the minister is not obliged to sign any such decree that has been issued disregarding the Constitution or failing to comply with the procedures stipulated in the law or other requirements. Otherwise the Prime Minister or the minister would be responsible for the actions that he or she would have to perform without having any choice, i.e. irrespective of his or her will. In a democratic country, no such legal regulation can be possible because it would be inconsistent with the principles of the rule of law and justice, which are the cornerstones of the Constitution of Lithuania and the Lithuanian legal system as a whole.

It follows from the right and obligation of the Prime Minister or the respective minister stipulated in Article 85 of the Constitution to decide on whether to sign the decrees referred to in Article 84 Paragraph 3, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution or not that the Prime Minister or the appropriate minister has the duty, prior to signing the relevant Presidential decree, to ascertain whether this Presidential decree has been issued in compliance with the procedures specified in the Constitution, the appropriate legislation, and other requirements. Since the Prime Minister or the appropriate minister has the said duty, the responsibility for the Presidential decree, under Article 85 of the Constitution, lies with the Prime Minister or the appropriate minister”.

The Speaker of the Seimas signs the legal acts specified in the Statute of the Seimas, except for the cases of signing legislation stipulated in the Constitution. Article 29(1)(2)–29(1)(4) provide that the Speaker of the Seimas within ten days signs the Statute of the Seimas and amendments to it, within ten days of the adoption of a law by the Seimas signs resolutions and other acts enacted by the Seimas, and within 24 hours signs the decisions of the Board of the Seimas if he has chaired the sitting. If on the instruction of the Speaker of the Seimas one of the deputy speakers of the Seimas chaired the sitting of the Board of the Seimas, within 24 hours the deputy speaker of the Seimas signs the decisions of the Board of the Seimas (Article 30(2) of the Statute of the Seimas). These provisions are repeated in Article 127 of the Statute of the Seimas.

Article 41(2)–(4) of the Law on the Government states that Government resolutions are signed by the Prime Minister and the minister of the appropriate sphere of administration, irrespective of his vote during the sitting or his participation in the Government sitting. In the cases when a resolution covers several spheres of administration, it is signed by the Prime Minister and the minister who heads the ministry that has submitted the draft resolution or who has approved the draft resolution in accordance with the procedure established in Article 38(1) of this Law of the Government. Government resolutions amending, supplementing or repealing previously passed resolutions are signed by the Prime Minister and the minister of that sphere of administration who signed the previous resolutions, irrespective of who submitted the new draft resolution for consideration to the Government. Government resolutions are signed in the manner prescribed by the Rules of Procedure of the Government unless otherwise provided for by the Government.

According to Article 41¹(2) of the Law on the Government, Government resolutions and decisions are signed by the Prime Minister in the manner prescribed by the rules of procedure of the Government. The Prime Minister also signs other acts. Article 43(1) of the Law on the Government states that within the area of his competence the Prime Minister adopts ordinances concerning organisational, personal, and other matters or urgent decisions/instructions documented as resolutions (Lith. rezoliucija). These are acts implementing the law.

Paragraphs 110–120 of the Rules of Procedure of the Government regulate the technical side and timeframe for signing legal acts enacted by the Government.

Article 26(3)(5) of the Law on the Government provides that the minister issues and signs orders, and when necessary, several ministers may issue joint orders. The technical side of this issue and the timeframe for ministers signing and endorsing legal acts is regulated by the regulations of ministries.

The signing of legal acts by the heads of government agencies, agencies under the ministries, and other relevant agencies is regulated by the regulations and rules of procedure of these agencies and other legal acts.

Article 13(13) and Article 20(2)(1) of the Law on Local Self-Government provide that decisions of the municipal council must be signed by the mayor, deputy mayor, or other member of the council who has chaired the meeting. The decision on the election of the mayor is signed by the chairman of the electoral commission of the constituency who has chaired the meeting of the municipal council.

The signing of legal acts by other municipal institutions and agencies is regulated by the Law on Local Self-Government, other laws, the regulations of the institutions and agencies, and other legal acts.

4.6 HOW ARE LEGAL ACTS PROMULGATED? HOW IS PUBLICATION OF LEGAL ACTS IN THE REGISTER RELATED TO THEIR ENTRY INTO FORCE?

Article 7(2) of the Constitution states: “Only laws that are promulgated are valid”. The signing and the official announcement, i.e. the promulgation of laws, constitute the final stage of the legislative process. The signing and the official promulgation of laws is the compulsory condition for their entry into force (ruling of 19 June 2002 of the Constitutional Court).

The procedure for the promulgation and entry into force of legal acts is regulated by the provisions of the Constitution, the LLF, the Statute of the Seimas, the Law on Local Self-Government, and other legal norms.

According to Article 149 of the Constitution:

"A law that has been adopted to amend the Constitution must be signed by the President of the Republic of Lithuania and officially promulgated within 5 days.

If the President of the Republic of Lithuania does not sign and promulgate such a law by the designated time, this law becomes effective when the Chairperson of the Seimas signs and promulgates it.

A law amending the Constitution becomes effective no earlier than one month after its adoption”.

Articles 70–72 and Article 84(24) of the Constitution provide the procedure and specifics of the promulgation of laws.

The procedure for the promulgation of laws is regulated by the LLF. Article 19(1) of the LLF stipulates that the legal acts specified in Article 6(2)(1)–6(2)(1)(18) of the LLF are recorded and officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts. Article 6(2)(1)–6(2)(1)(18) of the LLF specifies that the following laws must be recorded in the Register:

1) the Constitution;

2) constitutional laws;

3) other laws;

4) the Statute of the Seimas;

5) resolutions of the Seimas;

6) other legal acts enacted by the Seimas;

7) international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania;

8) decrees and ordinances of the President of the Republic;

9) Government decisions and resolutions;

10) Rules of the Constitutional Court;

11) regulatory legal acts of by ministers and heads of government agencies, other public institutions and agencies, and collegial bodies;

12) ordinances of the Prime Minister;

13) ordinances of the Speaker of the Seimas;

14) decisions of the Board of the Seimas;

15) regulatory legal acts of the Bank of Lithuania;

16) regulatory legal acts of municipal authorities and legal acts adopted by mayors of municipalities which, according to legal acts, must be published in the Register of Legal Acts;

17) regulatory legal acts enacted by management bodies of associations, state or municipal enterprises, and public institutions authorised to carry out public administration and owned or partially owned by the state or municipality. Legal acts enacted by management bodies of other associations, state or municipal enterprises, and public institutions owned or partially owned by the state or municipality are recorded in the Register of Legal Acts only in those cases when, according to legal acts, it is compulsory to promulgate them in the Register of Legal Acts;

18) legal acts implementing a law adopted by ministers, managers of government agencies and other state and municipal institutions and agencies, and collegial institutions; the board or the chairman of the board of the Bank of Lithuania; and management bodies of associations, state or municipal enterprises, and public institutions authorised to carry out public administration and owned or partially owned by the state or municipality when, according to legal acts, it is compulsory to promulgate them in the Register of Legal Acts.

According to Article 19(2) of the LLF, a legal act that is signed by an entity having statutory powers specified in legal acts and that must be recorded in the Register of Legal Acts must be recorded and promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts no later than on the next business day after it is signed.

According to Article 2(8) of the LLF, the Register of Legal Acts is the main state register in which the legal acts specified in the LLF are recorded; the data of the Register are collected, accrued, processed, systematised, stored and provided according to the procedure stipulated in legal acts and other administration actions involving the data are carried out as specified in legal acts.

Thus, the said legal acts are promulgated only after they have been recorded in the Register of Legal Acts. No other promulgation of a legal act is considered an official promulgation of the legal act. Article 19(3) of the LLF provides that the recording and promulgation of a legal act in the Register of Legal Acts is considered an official promulgation of the legal act. Promulgation of the law is directly related to publicity and accessibility. No legal act may be considered promulgated if it is not accessible to the addressees of the legal regulation and therefore it is not known. Article 6 Paragraph 4, 6, and 7 of the LLF specify requirements for the promulgation of legal acts. The regulations stipulate that the data of the Register of Legal Acts is available free of charge. When according to the procedure stipulated in other legal acts the data of the Register of Legal Acts is provided to entities or individuals entitled to receive the data with the purpose of providing services to third parties or because they wish to get the data and the retrieval and provision of the data require additional costs, the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts sets a fee for these services depending on the amount of data provided and the use of the information technology solutions involved. The amount of the fee for these services is publicly announced on the internet site of the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts. The data of the Register of Legal Acts is administered in accordance with the LLF, the Law on State Information Resource Management, other laws, the Rules of the Register of Legal Acts approved by the Seimas, and other legal acts. Other laws apply to the administration of the data of the Register of Legal Acts to the extent it is not regulated by the LLF. A summary of a legal act (or several summaries of a legal act when certain provisions of an amended legal act come into force at different times) is (are) promulgated no later than three business days after the promulgation of the legal act that amends or supplements this legal act. The administrator of the Register of Legal Acts is responsible for proper drafting and promulgation of the summary of the legal act.

The entry into force of a legal act is directly related to its promulgation. Article 20 of the LLF specified the procedure for the entry into force of legal acts promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts:

“1. A regulatory legal act comes into force the next day after its official promulgation in the Register of Legal Acts unless a later date is stipulated in the act itself.

2. A law amending the Constitution comes into force no earlier than one month after its enactment.

3. Taxation laws of the Republic of Lithuania that impose new taxes, new tax rates, exemptions, or penalties for violations of tax laws or essentially replace taxation procedure with respect to a certain tax or principles of legal taxation regulation and application come into force not earlier than six months after the date of their official promulgation. This provision does not apply to laws or legal acts amending (supplementing) taxation laws of the Republic of Lithuania that are related to the law on the approval of financial indicators of the state budget and municipal budgets for the relevant year and that align Lithuanian national law with EU law.

4. Legal acts amending or establishing new legal regulations for the activities and control of economic entities usually come into force on 1 May or 1 November, but in any case not earlier than three months after their official promulgation. This provision does not apply when legal regulations are established or amended in accordance with the obligations stipulated in EU legal acts and requirements of international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania, and when more favourable legal regulations are imposed on economic entities.

5. Acts implementing a law that must be recorded in the Register of Legal Entities come into force on the date they are promulgated in the Register of Legal Entities, unless a later date is specified in the act implementing the law.

6. A resolution of the Seimas regarding removal of the persons specified in Article 74 of the Constitution from office or withdrawal of the mandate of a member of the Seimas through the impeachment procedure and also a resolution of the Seimas that records the termination of the impeachment process after the resignation of the person comes into force on the date it is officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts or mass media.

7. A resolution of the Seimas declaring mobilisation or demobilisation, war, or a state of emergency comes into force on the date it is officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts or mass media.

8. A resolution of the Seimas regarding the appointment of the Prime Minister to temporarily act for the President of the Republic comes into force on the date it is officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts.

9. Other enacted legal acts of the Seimas not specified in Paragraphs 1–8 above come into force the day after they are officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts unless another procedure for their entry into force is specified in the legal acts themselves.

10. A presidential decree regarding temporary substitution of the President of the Republic comes into force on the date it is officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts.

11. A presidential decree declaring mobilisation, war, or a state of emergency comes into force on the date it is officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts or mass media”.

According to Article 6(2)(19) and 6(2)(20), rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court; statements made by the chairman of the Constitutional Court because of the suspension of the validity of a disputed act or withdrawal of the suspension of the validity of a disputed act; decisions, rulings and orders of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania; and decisions of administrative courts regarding the lawfulness of regulatory administrative acts must be recorded in the Register of Legal Acts. The LLF sets out specific rules that govern promulgation and entry into force of these legal acts, however. Article 21 of the LLF provides:

“1. Rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court and statements made by the chairman of the Constitutional Court because of the suspension of the validity of a disputed act or withdrawal of the suspension of the validity of a disputed act must be recorded and officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts.

2. Signed rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding interpretation of a ruling of the Constitutional Court must no later than the next business day be provided to the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts. These acts of the Constitutional Court must be recorded and officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts no later than the next business day after they have been provided to the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts unless another date is provided in the acts themselves.

3. Statements made by the chairman of the Constitutional Court because of the suspension of the validity of a disputed act or withdrawal of the suspension of the validity of a disputed act must be registered and officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts on the date they are provided to the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts.

4. Rulings and decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding interpretation of the ruling of the Constitutional Court and statements made by the chairman of the Constitutional Court because of the suspension of the validity of a disputed act or withdrawal of the suspension of the validity of a disputed act come into force on the date they are officially promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts”.

Article 22 of the LLF provides:

“1. All rulings, decisions and orders of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania and all decisions of administrative courts regarding the lawfulness of regulatory administrative acts must be recorded and promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts.

2. The National Court Administration is in charge of the provision of procedural decisions of courts specified in Paragraph 1 above for registration and promulgation in the Register of Legal Acts. The National Court Administration provides the information to the Register of Legal Acts according to the procedure that is established by the Judicial Council and agreed with the administrator of the Register of Legal Acts”.

There are more exceptions related to the promulgation of legal acts. For example, Article 29⁽¹⁾(7) of the Statute of the Seimas states that a resolution adopted by the Seimas shall indicate the circumstances on which the Seimas resolution is based, the appointment of the Speaker of the Seimas to temporarily act for the President of the Republic and the appointment of a Deputy Speaker of the Seimas to temporarily act for the Speaker of the Seimas. The Seimas resolution is published in the manner prescribed by law and broadcast on mass media.

Other laws and legal acts provide blanket provisions. Article 9(4) of the Law on the Office of President provides that decrees of the President of the Republic are officially promulgated and come into force according to the procedure stipulated by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania.

Article 128(1) of the Statute of the Seimas states that laws and other legal acts adopted by the Seimas are published and enter into force pursuant to the procedure stipulated in the Law on the Legislative Framework.

Article 45(2)(6) of the Law on the Government provides that the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the Government must ensure that Government orders, ordinances of the Prime Minister, and decisions and resolutions of the Government are promulgated according to the procedure established in the law.

Paragraphs 122 and 123 of the Rules of the Procedure of the Government stipulate that Government decisions are published and enter into force according to the procedure established in the law and other legal acts. Government resolutions that amend or establish new legal regulations and control of the activities of economic entities must come into force on 1 May or 1 November, but in any case not earlier than three months after their official promulgation. These Government resolutions must be published not later than 3 months prior to their entry into force. This provision does not apply when resolutions that amend or establish new legal regulations and control of the activities of economic entities are passed in accordance with the obligations stipulated in EU legal acts and requirements of international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania and also when more favourable legal regulations are imposed on economic entities.

Article 21 of the Law on Local Self-Government provides that the procedure for entry into force of legal acts enacted by municipal representatives and executive bodies and mayors of municipalities is established by the Law on the Procedure for Publication and Entry into Force of Laws and Other Legal Acts.

Legal acts that are not recorded and promulgated in the Register of Legal Acts enter into force when they are promulgated or according to the procedure stipulated in the acts themselves.

5 WHAT IS THE ROLE OF EUROPEAN UNION LEGAL REGULATIONS ON LITHUANIAN LAW?

On 13 July 2004, the Seimas adopted a law supplementing the Constitution with a constitutional act, On Lithuania’s Membership in the European Union. The constitutional act stipulates:

“The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania,

executing the will of the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania expressed in the referendum held on 10–11 May 2003 on the membership of the Republic of Lithuania in the European Union;

expressing its conviction that the European Union respects human rights and fundamental freedoms and that the Lithuanian membership in the European Union will contribute to more efficient securing of human rights and freedoms,

noting that the European Union respects the national identity and constitutional traditions of its Member States,

seeking to ensure the fully-fledged participation of the Republic of Lithuania in European integration, the security of the Republic of Lithuania, and the welfare of its citizens,

having ratified, on 16 September 2003, the Treaty Between the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Hellenic Republic, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, Ireland, the Italian Republic the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Austria, the Portuguese Republic, the Republic of Finland, the Kingdom of Sweden, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Member States of the European Union) and the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia, the Slovak Republic Concerning the Accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia, and the Slovak Republic to the European Union signed on 16 April 2003 in Athens,

adopts and proclaims this Constitutional Act

1. The Republic of Lithuania as a Member State of the European Union will share with or relinquish to the European Union the competences of its state institutions in the areas provided for in the founding treaties of the European Union and to the extent it would, together with the other Member States of the European Union, jointly meet its membership commitments in those areas and enjoy the membership rights.

2. The norms of European Union law are a constituent part of the legal system of the Republic of Lithuania. Where it concerns the founding treaties of the European Union, the norms of the European Union law are applied directly, and if legal norms are contradictory, they will have supremacy over the laws and other legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania.

3. The Government must inform the Seimas about proposals to adopt acts of European Union law. Regarding proposals to adopt the acts of European Union law regulating the areas that according to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania are related to the competence of the Seimas, the Government must consult the Seimas. The Seimas may recommend that the Government should adopt a particular position for the Republic of Lithuania concerning these proposals. The Seimas Committee on European Affairs and the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs may, according to the procedure established by the Statute of the Seimas, submit the opinion of the Seimas to the Government concerning the proposals to adopt European Union legal acts. The Government must assess the recommendations or opinions submitted by the Seimas or Seimas committees and must inform the Seimas about their execution following the procedure established by legal acts.

4. The Government considers proposals to adopt the legal acts of the European Union according to the procedure established by legal acts. The provisions of Article 95 of the Constitution may not be applicable to the decisions or resolutions the Government adopts concerning these proposals,”

As required by the constitutional act, debate and resolution of EU matters are regulated by Chapter 27¹ and Article 180²⁶ of the Statute of the Seimas. Debate and resolution of EU matters are also governed by other norms of the Statute of the Seimas to the extent special norms do not prescribe different regulations.

Chapter 11 of the Law on the Government (Debate and Resolution of European Union Matters), the Rules of Procedure of the Government, and the Rules for the Coordination of European Union Matters approved by Resolution No. 21 of 9 January 2004 of the Government also establish procedures for the implementation of the requirements of the constitutional act.

Article 9(2) of the LLF also establishes an important requirement related to the debate and resolution of EU affairs: when preparing a draft legal act involving alignment of Lithuanian national law with EU law or international law, all possible alternatives must be evaluated and the decisions best reflecting the interests of Lithuania must be selected.

State institutions and agencies are responsible for the transposition of EU laws into national laws according to the area of their competence. The Department of European Law under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania coordinates the transposition of EU laws into national laws.

Courts in the Republic of Lithuania are responsible for proper application of EU law. According to Article 40¹ of the Law on Courts, the court in which the issue of interpretation or application of the legal provisions of the acts of the European Union arises is entitled to apply to a competent judicial institution of the European Union with a request for a ruling. This ruling is called a preliminary ruling. The main purpose of a preliminary ruling is to ensure that EU law is applied uniformly in all EU states.

If the Republic of Lithuania fails to fulfil its commitments under the EU law, the European Commission or another member state may sue Lithuania in the European Court of Justice. If the European Court of Justice finds that Lithuania has failed to fulfil its commitments, it must immediately rectify the situation. And if the European Court of Justice rules that Lithuania failed to fulfil the order of the court, it may impose a fine on Lithuania.

If the Republic of Lithuania considers that a certain EU legal act is illegal, it may ask the European Court of Justice to annul it. Claims regarding annulment may also be brought by private individuals who want the European Court of Justice to repeal a legal act because it has a direct adverse effect on them as individuals. If the European Court of Justice finds that the specific legal act has been adopted unlawfully or is not properly supported by the founding treaties of the European Union, it may declare it null and void.

If individuals or companies in Lithuania have incurred damage due to actions or omissions of the European Union or employees of its institutions, they may bring a claim before the Court of Justice of the European Union (General Court) for compensation.