Introduction

• Author: Kamenska, Anhelita
• Pages: 13-15

13

INTRODUCTION

The national legal system

Latvia’s legal system belongs to the continental (Romano-Germanic) law system. Latvia’s

law was significantly influenced by German (and subsequently, Roman) law, especially in

areas of civil, administrative and constitutional law. The Constitution (Satversme),

adopted in 1922, was drafted using the Weimar Constitution, the constitutions of German

states and the Constitution of France as primary models. The most important source of

law in Latvia is legal acts, which can be divided into two categories: external and

internal. External legal a cts are universally binding. The main types of external legal ac ts

are laws, regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers and binding regulations of local

municipalities. Internal legal acts bind only the issuing state institution. Examples of

internal legal acts are statutes, instructions and recommendations.

The hierarchical system of legal acts in Latvia is as follows: 1) the Constitution; 2) laws;

3) regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers; 4) binding regulations of local authorities.

International and EU legal norms are applied in accordance with their ranking in the

hierarchy of external regulat ory enactments. In cases of conflicts between Latvi an and

international or EU statute of the same legal force, the in ternational or EU law or

provision must be applied.49

Latvia is a multi-ethnic country, although the proportion of the different ethnic groups

among its population has varied. In 2011, of a population of 2 067 887, 62.1 % were

Latvians, 26.9 % Russians, 3.3 % Belarusians, 2.2 % Ukrainians, 2.2 % Poles; 1.2 %

Lithuanians, 0.3 % Jewish, 0.3 % Roma, 0.1 % Estonians, 0.1 % Germans, and 1.3 %

others.50 Latvian citizens number 1 775 839 or 84.74 % of the population; of these,

ethnic Latvians constitute 71.08 %. Some 10.72 % or 224 670 inhabitants are non-

citizens,51 of which et hnic Russians are the larg est group. Therefore, issues relating t o

non-citizens are often treated a s mainly concerning Ru ssians or Russian-speakers, and

the rights of citizens and non-citizens, as well as linguistic issues, remain sensitive. There

are more than 73 000 third-country nationals; the largest group are citizens of Russia

(53 934), many of whom are long-term residents in Latvia, followed by citizens of

Ukraine (8 188) and citizens of Belarus (3 518). There are also 174 stateless persons

living in Latvia.52

List of main legislation transp osing and implementing the directives

Latvian anti-discrimination law remains scattered across many pieces of legislation. The

main problem, however, is that, while most fields covered by th e directives are cove red

in Latvia, the law often does not apply to all grounds – which results in incomplete

protection. The older laws containing an equality clause never include all of the grounds

required by the dir ectives, and not all of them leave the list of grounds open.

Furthermore, the l aws that are supp osed to implement th e directives leav e some grounds

uncovered.53

49 Bebre, B., and Gjortlere, L. (2012), ‘Update: Guide to Latvian Legal System and Legal Research’, Riga

Graduate School of Law, available at: http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Latv ia1.html.

50 2011 Population Census.

51 Non-citizens are a special category of people – former USSR citizens who were resident in Latvia on

01.07.1991 and have not obtained citizenship of any other country, thus this term does not encomp ass

foreign citizens and stateless persons . Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, Statistics of the Population

Register (01.01.2019), Latvian population breakdown by nationality, availa ble at:

https://www.pmlp.gov.lv/lv/assets/backup/ISV P_Latvija_pec_VPD.pdf.

52 Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, Statistics of the Population Register.

53 Sexual orientation has remained a controversial topic, with Latvian legislation eventually broug ht into line

with the directives through the inclusion of specific provisions in the Labou r Law on 21 September 2006.

However, even bef ore this specific reference, in the first case where discrimination b ased on sexual

orientation was alleged in the area of employment, in 2003, the court held that the discrimination based on