Introduction

• Author: Sabatauskait?, Birut?
• Pages: 14-14

14

INTRODUCTION

Thenational legalsystem

The Republic of Lithuania is a unitary state. The Constitution ofthe Republic of

Lithuania21was adopted by referendum on 25October 1992andentered into force on 2

November 1992.Lithuania is party to a number ofinternationalagreementsthat

guarantee protection against discrimination on various grounds.Article 138(3) ofthe

Constitution statesthat internationalagreementsthat have been ratified by the

Parliament form a constituent part ofthe legal system. Accordingto theLaw on

International Agreements, if an international agreementthat has beenratified and

enforced by the Republicof Lithuania establishes norms otherthan those established by

thelaws of the Republicof Lithuania or by other legalacts existing or coming into force

after the date of the entry into force of the international agreement, the provisions of the

international agreement shall apply.

TheConstitution stipulates that constitutional review in Lithuania is exercised by the

Constitutional Courtofthe Republic of Lithuania. Itensures the supremacy of the

Constitution within the legal system, as well as constitutional justice by deciding whether

laws and other legal acts adopted byParliament are in conformity with the Constitution

andwhether the acts adopted by the President or the Government arein compliance with

the Constitution and the law.

Theright tofile a petition with the ConstitutionalCourt concerning the constitutionality of

a legal act is vested inthe Government, groups consistingof at least one fifth of all

members ofthe Seimas(Parliament), the courts andthe President of Lithuania. The right

for individuals to lodge petitions with the Constitutional Courtwas granted in 2019.22

List of main legislation transposing and implementing the directives

The main law designed to implement the anti-discrimination directives is:

-The Law on Equal Treatment(LET).23Date of adoption: 18.11.2003. Grounds

covered: gender, race, ‘nationality’, citizenship, language, origin, socialstatus,

belief, convictions or views, age,sexualorientation, disability, ethnic origin and

religion.The materialscope ofthe law covers employment, access to goods or

services andeducation.

In addition, a numberof employmentprovisionsfrom theLaw on EqualTreatment were

copied into theLabour Code. Date of adoption: 14.06.2016.24

21Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucija), 1992, No. 33-1014, available in

English at:http://www3.lrs.lt/home/Konstitucija/Constitution.htm.

22Lawamending Articles 106 and 107 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, 21 March 2019, No.

XIII-2004, that cameinto force on 1 September2019, available in Englishat:

https://e-seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAD/786eb162508a11e98bc2ba0c0453c004?jfwid=pffih3y6p.

23Lawon Equal Treatment (Lietuvos Respublikos Lygi galimybi statymas), 2003, No.114-5115, entry into

force 01.01.2005; latest amendments: 11.12.2018, available in Lithuanian at: https://www.e-

tar.lt/portal/lt/legalAct/TAR.0CC6CB2A9E42/asr.

24Labour Code (Darbo kodekso patvirtinimo, sigaliojimo ir gyvendinimostatymas. Darbo Kodeksas), 2016,

No. XII-2603, entry into force: 01.07.2017; latest amendments: 20.12.2018, available in Lithuanian at:

https://www.e-tar.lt/portal/lt/legalAct/f6d686707e7011e6b969d7ae07280e89/asr.