This paper aims to provide a comprehensive examination of the development of Lithuanian philosophical thought and philosophy of culture in Lithuania, focusing specifically on the concept of integral democracy. The emergence of Lithuanian philosophy in the Lithuanian language, which dates back to the early twentieth century, coincided with the formation of the modern Lithuanian state (1918-1940). During this period, cultural progress was emphasized alongside economic development, and the philosophy of culture became the dominant paradigm. The article posits integral democracy as (...) a significant philosophical contribution from this era, initially developed by Stasys Šalkauskis and further elaborated by his students, Antanas Maceina and Juozas Girnius. It calls for democratizing cultural, social, and economic spheres, emphasizing personal freedom of conscience and cultural autonomy for various communities and groups with a multilayered democracy rooted in cultural, economic, and social autonomy, advocating for protecting individual and communal freedoms from state overreach. (shrink)

Research on the forced migration of Lithuanians to the east of the former Soviet Union in the 1940s and early 1950s throws up a wide range of issues. Methodologically, most of such studies are similar in terms of the sample chosen, which consists of the former prisoners of gulags and exiles who have returned to Lithuania, but it usually disregards those who stayed. Accordingly, the Lithuanian diasporas that emerged in the east after the forced migration, including in Kazakhstan, have (...) not been studied in detail. In this article, our aim is to answer the questions of how and in what private and public contexts processes of the ethnic identification of the Lithuanian diaspora in Kazakhstan are determined, how ethnic boundaries are drawn, and what cultural and social resources are used for this purpose. As the research revealed, the conceptualisation of ethnicity implied by the Kazakhstan state that has been adopted by our informants eliminates its cultural content, or at most reduces it to forms evident in festive culture, as well as the need and possibilities for its expression. As a result, ethnic identity is constructed on the basis of what is almost the sole criterion: Lithuanian descent in the form of ‘root’ or ‘blood’. For most of our informants, ‘roots’ are just a fact of origin, as shown in the practice of entering Lithuanian ethnicity in personal documents, an officially required practice which does not have and does not presuppose any enactment of ethno-cultural differences. Ethnicity, which is seen as ‘in-rooted’ but also as culture-less and as muted by a doubling of roots among ethnically mixed families of origin, enables a whole spectrum of manipulations of ethnic identity. One such manipulation is attempting to profit from the Lithuanian ethnic identity by turning it into a resource for acquiring benefits. The practice of profiteering from the Lithuanian ethnic identity, and thus its transformation into a resource for gaining benefits in the forms of Lithuanian citizenship and a hope of being repatriated to Lithuania, is probably the most frequent factor in becoming Lithuanian by remembering Lithuanian roots and activating the Lithuanian ethnic identity. (shrink)

Between the world wars, Lithuanian notary practice was based on the legal acts adopted from Russia, the Kingdom of Poland, and Germany. The most important was the Russian Notary Law of 1866, which was valid in the largest part of the Lithuanian territory. This law established the so-called approval system, in which the most important acts of the notary as indicated by civil law had to be approved by the senior notary, who worked under the supervision of the county court. (...) In 1919, upon transferring this outdated system into the Lithuanian law practice, only a few provisions were corrected. In addition to the right to collect fees from customers, the notaries had a fixed state remuneration established for them. The provisions for material liability of the notaries were abolished. This withdrawal from the so-called Latin model of notary practice was corrected by the changes to the Notary Law of 1932, which declared notaries as “civil servants without wages”. Thus, starting 1932, payments from the state have been discontinued while more regulation was enforced regarding the daily activities of notaries (e.g. notaries were required to work at least six office hours). Furthermore, the provisions on material liability were revived. (shrink)

Article 14 Chapter I ‘The State of Lithuania’ of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania of 1992 reads as follows: ‘Lithuanian shall be the State language’. This principle is not new in the Lithuanian history of constitutionalization, as Lithuanian was the official language of the State in the interwar period but lost this status during the Soviet occupation. After 1988, when many political, economic and social changes crucial for further development of the State took place in Lithuania, linguistic issues (...) re-emerged. It was recognized back then that language played a vital role in the life of the State and the society, and the Lithuanian language was given back its status of the official language by the Constitution. The principle that Lithuanian is the official language of the State, enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, was further elaborated by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania in its rulings and judgments. According to its official constitutional doctrine, the Lithuanian language should be treated as a very specific constitutional value, as it forms the basis of the ethnic and cultural identity of the Lithuanian nation and is the guarantor of the national identity and survival. The status of Lithuanian as the official language means that the Lithuanian language must be used in all spheres of public life. The Court also holds that having this principle enshrined in Chapter I ‘The State of Lithuania’ of the Constitution implies that the Lithuanian language enjoys particular protection since the provisions of this Chapter may be amended only by a referendum. (shrink)

Upon reinstitution of the Lithuanian state in the beginning of the twentieth century, some people reflected back to the times where Lithuanian law had European significance. However, it was concluded that the latter would not satisfy the needs of a modern state. The change in times made the continuation of the legal tradition impossible. Yet it was also impossible to put faith into fast creation of the essentially new Lithuanian legal system. Therefore, it was decided to accept a foreign system (...) that was in place before the First World War – that of the Russian Empire. The law of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy (LGD) had an impact on the Russian law during the course of history. The most important channel was the reception of the Lithuanian Statute into the Sobor Code of 1679, which later resulted in the codex of the Russian Empire. The latter was also supplemented by the norms from the Lithuanian Statute relating to some exceptions in various regions covered. Some norms were imported purely for the purpose of renewal of the Russian legislation. The reception of the Russian law in the independent Lithuanian state meant that together with it Lithuania had accepted historical norms from the Lithuanian Statute. In that manner, the modern Lithuanian law was related to the historical law of the LGD. (shrink)

Vytautas Raudeliūnas is Lithuanian law historian, expert of the history of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, pedagogue and Lithuanian patriot. He spent his youth in exile and finished his studies in Russia and in Vilnius. He worked as a fellow in Lithuanian Science Academy, in the Monument Defence Office, the Institute of Culture, Philosophy and Art. V. Raudeliūnas lectured at Vilnius Pedagogical University. He was one of the establishers and publishers of periodical publications “The monuments of Lithuanian law”, “The studies (...) of Lithuanian law history”. The article describes biography of V. Raudeliūnas, collects and disputes his bibliography and evaluates his contribution to the history of Lithuanian law. The article analyzes V.Raudeliūnas’ biography and scientific activity, as well as the main directions of his research: publications and transcriptions of Lithuanian Statutes; development of law institutes in the Great Duchy of Lithuania; peculiarities of development of Vilnius University. (shrink)

The article describes the publications of 1945–1990 in the Lithuanian emigration press, reflecting the efforts to use the intellectual potential of Lithuanian emigration in the future in order to reconstruct the Lithuanian political-social system and public relations after breaking away from the Soviet Union. One of the tasks of higher importance the emigration considered was the search for the proper future legal regulation in the sphere of ownership relations, taking into account the essential reforms in this sphere that have been (...) made in Lithuania by the Soviet authority. The discussions in the field of ownership relations began practically from the beginning of the second Soviet occupation after the representatives of Lithuanian residents retreated to the West. The most active discussions were held during the sixth-seventh decades. The eminent interwar period Lithuanian specialists in conformable fields expressed their opinion in the press. (shrink)

Private copying exception is an exception to copyright which is present both in Lithuanian national law and law of the European Union. Recent jurisprudence of Court of Justice of the European Union interpreted legal regulation of private copying exception in the laws of the European Union. The mentioned jurisprudence raised concern whether Lithuanian copyright laws on private copying exception and their interpretation in case law of Supreme Court of Lithuania are compatible with the European Union law. This paper analyses the (...) nature and intention of private copying exception, its reflection in Lithuanian and European copyright law and evaluates Lithuanian laws and case law in the light of recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The authors conclude that recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union on private copying exception shall not lead to any dramatic or substantial changes of Lithuanian national copyright laws. (shrink)

National <.lt> domain name disputes in Lithuania are the ones which courts must decide without having any specific legal regulation. In such cases courts shall apply analogy of law, customs and general principals of law. Last but not least, the courts must address international legal practice as regards the domain name disputes, i.e. take into account the famous ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy adopted in 1999 and mostly applied by the panels of WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre while (...) dealing with disputes on generic top level domain names <.com>, <.net>, <.org>, also analyse the practice of ADR cases of Czech Arbitration Court which has the jurisdiction over <.eu> domain name disputes. This article deals with the case-law of Lithuanian courts in <.lt> domain name disputes and analysis the trends of Lithuanian internet law as regards the protection of the owners of intellectual property in Lithuania. The special attention is given to the phenomenon of cybersquatting in Lithuania and the lack of effective means to fight such unfair practices on the net. (shrink)

This article is based on the presupposition that postmodern philosophy has been largely influenced by Nietzsche's writings. The author raises the question of how Nietzsche and postmodern philosophy are interpreted in the contemporary philosophical discourse in Lithuania. The conclusion drawn is that many philosophy critics in Lithuania are interested in Nietzsche's philosophy (Mickevižius, Sodeika, Šerpytytè, Sverdiolas, Baranova) and in the problems of postmodern philosophy (Keršytè, Rubavižius, Žukauskaité, Serpytytè, Šverdiolas, Baranova, Norkus). The article also raises a second crucial question: beyond the (...) critics, are there any truly authentic postmodern thinkers in Lithuania? This article's main hypotheses is that Arvydas Šliogeris' philosophy is the best and perhaps the only example of original Lithuanian postmodern thought; it is based on, and interconnected with, the deeply inherited roots of existential thought in Lithuanian philosophical culture. The arguments for these hypotheses are as follows: first, Šliogeris is the first philosopher in Lithuania who has tried to reason in an interdisciplinary manner, e. g. trying to overcome the modernistic distinction between philosophy and the arts (especially literature, poetry, and the visual arts); secondly, Šliogeris's philosophizing is indispensable to his writings— his texts are examples of an experience of writing as thinking and thinking as writing; thirdly, following Deleuze's presupposition that the philosopher is a creator, one can see this creative aspect in Šliogeris's approach. His texts show how it is possible to synthesize insights from philosophy and poetry. (shrink)

In the history of Lithuania during the period between the two world wars, the criminal law sources were received from Russia (Criminal Statute of 1903) and adapted for the requirements of those States, where the conditions of life were notably different from those in Lithuania. The Criminal Statute of 1903 was the main criminal law source in Lithuania until 1940. Prior to the second occupation—the return of the Soviets—tens of thousands of Lithuanian citizens fled to the West, including a very (...) large segment of the intelligentsia, university lecturers, professors and many lawyers. The lawyers in emigration were very socially active and founded a paper of law research—“Teisininkų žinios.” The article deals with the works and research of the emigration lawyers B. Nemickas, V. Vaitkevičius, P. Raulinaitis,V. Rastenis, D. Krivickas and others, in which they deal with the problem of Soviet criminal law. The lawyers analyse the sources of Soviet criminal law, which was the criminal law source in occupied Lithuania. (shrink)

Today’s Lithuania is the historical-legal result of many processes, including the creation of the country in the thirteen century, ongoing life during five hundred years, two annexations resulting in the disappearance from the political map and two rebirths. The tradition of statehood and extended experience has greatly contributed to its survival and its ability to regain statehood in the light of the changed political, economic and social circumstances. Upon the climax of the First World War, the reinstatement of the statehood (...) of Lithuania has been influenced by favourable international situation, the popularity of the principle of nation’s free choice, and the decisive actions by the Lithuanian politicians. The relationship of the modern Lithuanian statehood with the historical state of Lithuania meant the continuity of this statehood, even though it was a multinational country. Without any other prospects upon the fall of other European empires, it has been replaced by the statehood based on national ethnicity. Together with the determination to manage the reinstated country of Lithuania according to the democratic principles, this was the main difference from the historical Lithuania. The state of Lithuania has managed to keep its own legal formal framework even though it has lost sovereignty upon annexation by the Soviet Union. The statehood has been reinstated once favourable circumstances came into place within the Union. The High Council of Lithuania has transformed from being a marionette structure forced upon by alien country into an instrument of parliamentary struggle for independence that has represented the second rebirth of the statehood of Lithuania. The formation of own law in both cases occurred by temporarily using current alien legislation that was not in conflict with the newly adopted constitutional legislation. The former has been gradually replaced by own legislation. (shrink)

The recent Lithuanian court practice shows discrepancies in cases dealing with partitioning of common partial divided property. Moreover, no doctrinal research has been concluded on the limits and conditions of the co-owners‘ right to demand that his share should be partitioned from the common partial ownership in Lithuania. Taking into account that proper implementation of co-ownership rights is based on common agreement of co-owners, when no agreement is reached between co-owners regarding the fact and the mode of partitioning, a question (...) arises on what conditions and to what extent the co-owner is free to implement his right to demand partitioning of his share from the common partial ownership. The research on historical developments of the partition law in different European countries shows that the co-owner’s right to partition is based on the idea of pluralistic conception of the modern property law objects. The authors of this article argue that this conception allows the co-owner to enjoy the right to dispose of his share in the common ownership as a separate object of civil turnover at his own volition and without the other co-owner’s consent. However, the right to partition is not absolute and is limited by the rights of the other co-owner to his share of the same property, so the right to partition may be implemented only following the proportionality and interest balance between the co-owners. (shrink)

Modern Lithuanian philosophy originated as aresponse to the questions formulated in Russianphilosophy – religious, moral, and social.Later it turned to Continental Europeanphilosophy, preoccupying itself with German andFrench existentialism, hermeneutics, andphenomenology. Yet the loss of independentpolitical and intellectual existence Lithuaniaexperienced for five decades isolated andmarginalized the then lively and promisingintellectual culture. In the 1980s, Lithuanianphilosophy started recovering and reorientingitself, again, to Western currents of moderntheoretical thought. Drawing on the example ofmodern Lithuanian philosophy, the articlepresents a detailed historical overview of whatmight be (...) termed the East-Central European routeto political and cultural modernity. (shrink)

This article deals with the ordering of interim measures in the arbitration process. Under the Lithuanian law, only one interim measure can be applied by commercial arbitration courts. It involves granting an order to pay the established amount as a deposit. This measure cannot be enforced unless the party acts in good faith and agrees to pay the deposit. However, if a party ignores the decision of the arbitration court, a third party court may apply to the state court with (...) a request to order interim measures provided for in the Lithuanian Code of Civil Procedure. Under the existing Lithuanian legislation, state courts have the exclusive right to order enforceable interim measures. The present situation is not satisfactory and should be changed. The legislator is now considering a new draft law on the Lithuanian commercial arbitration. The draft law provides for changes in ordering interim measures. The proposed regulation is in compliance with the goals of Article 17 of UNICITRAL Model Law on Commercial Arbitration. However, compliance with the rules of UNCITRAL is not the main goal of the proposed regulation. With the new regulation, the legislator aims for more efficient commercial arbitration with more extensive scope that will allow the commercial arbitration court to order interim measures independently. By allowing the commercial arbitration court to order interim measures independently, the legislator extends credibility of arbitration and makes it more inviting for the parties. Under the draft law on the Lithuanian commercial arbitration, state courts and commercial arbitration courts as discretionary institutions shall be entitled to order interim measures. On the other hand, a decision or a ruling of the commercial arbitration court shall be enforced if an execution order is issued by the state court. In this case, the state court shall be entitled to review whether the content of the decision or ruling of the commercial arbitration court complies with the imperative rules of law or public order. According to the proposed draft law on the Lithuanian commercial arbitration, both state and commercial arbitration courts shall have an independent right of discretion to order interim measures. However, some differences exist. In cases heard by commercial arbitration courts interim measures shall be ordered, whereas state courts acting under applications for interim measures filed by the parties or commercial arbitration courts, irrespective of the location of the arbitration process, shall be entitled to order interim measures. (shrink)

The article describes the evolution of problems in the Lithuanian labour law and labour law science since the re-establishment of independence in 1990. Three periods of evolution are presented: the Soviet period (lasted until 1990), the transitional period (1990- 2004) and the period of the Labour Code (2003 and onwards). During the Soviet period, the Code of Labour Laws regulated employment relationship in strict detail as the main employer was the state itself. Good reflections of that period can be pointed (...) out: active (but forced) collective bargaining, single tariff system that implemented equal treatment in the field of remuneration for work and fluent performance of enforcement of labour laws (legal clarity). During the transitional period, new labour laws were introduced and tuned-up with international labour standards (ILO), but in general there were no essential changes in practice. During all that period, the Lithuanian Labour Code was drafted and came in force in 2003. The period of the new Labour Code started together with the European integration and had to bring new trends of the European labour market into Lithuanian practice. The government and academics brought few initiatives for the liberalisation of labour laws but most of them were stuck in the stage of consulting with social partners (Tripartite Council). Nevertheless, 22 years after the collapse of command economy labour laws incompatible with free labour market still dominate. It is obvious that the Lithuanian Labour Code is outdated and needs general reconstruction. Scientific researches and the EU Council recommendations call for the introduction of flexibility, implementation of flexicurity aiming for full integration into the single European labour market. Some strict labour code rules are prevented from functioning in practice. The courts are forced to derogate from disproportionate and improper articles of the Labour Code. The author brings some of the existing problems of labour law into light and proposes their possible solutions. The existing crisis of labour law could be solved by drafting a new Labour Code with the help of academic researchers and by introducing it directly to the Parliament for adoption. (shrink)

Based on archival documents, regulatory and other official materials, as well as the press of that time, the article attempts to shed some light on the complex beginning of Lithuanian Roman legal system research. Since the beginning of theUniversity law degree in 1922, the Roman law courses (then divided into history and dogma, the system) were taught with an exclusive focus. However, while assembling the faculty of professors at the Lithuanian university, in the beginning they had to content mainly with (...) practitioners, therefore it was particularly difficult to solve the problem of the Roman legal system researcher that required very specific knowledge. (shrink)

In tort law, including Lithuanian tort law, damage usually is divided into two types: pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage. The concept of non-pecuniary damage has recently become a focus of attention of Lithuanian legal researchers. However, it has to be noted that the issues related to the concept of pecuniary damage remain scarcely analysed. As a result, the unique type of pecuniary damage, i.e. the damage of purely economic character, has received no attention whatsoever in Lithuanian tort law. It is usually (...) believed that the defence of the values of purely material character fall into the sphere of contractual law, while tort law is not concerned with the protection of these values. However, in the course of the development of social relations it has become apparent that in the present-day society personal financial losses have become equally important to the cases of actual damage to a person or a property. On the other hand, the fear to overextend the limits of tort law and, thus, limit the persons’ freedom to act, coupled with the different nature of the values protected by tort law provide grounds for the position that relatively abstract financial interests and absolute values or relative personal values should be protected in different ways. Referring to the doctrine and practice of foreign countries as well as the results of the analysis of Lithuanian positive law and court practices, in this article we aim at giving an answer to the question of where and how the ambit of protection under the tort law in the cases of damage of purely economic character should be defined. (shrink)

The object of this study is the legal framework for the sale or purchase of company shares when the goal of the transaction is the sale of a business. The impact of such transactions on Lithuanian economic development underlines the importance of this study. The recent wave of mergers and acquisitions in Lithuania is likely to substantially increase the number of related legal disputes as well. Legislation on the purchase and sale of company shares and the resulting transfer of business (...) has been enacted in Lithuania only recently. The regulation of such cases remains rather unclear, few cases have been brought to court, and the topic has been barely addressed by legal scholarship in Lithuania to date. It is unclear whether the fact that the real purpose of the transaction is not a simple reassignment of company shares, but business transfer, results in any differences in the interpretation and application of the law. An especially delicate question, raised in Lithuania and other European countries, is whether the buyer may submit a warranty claim to the seller regarding the business acquired. (shrink)

This article provides a study of the legal regulations of the European enforcement order and the uniform enforcement of judgments without the exequatur procedure, which have been in place between the member states of the European Union for five years already. In the Lithuanian civil procedure law it details the implementation of Regulation (EC) No. 805/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 for creating a European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims in the national law (...) of Lithuania. The aforementioned legal act of the European Union has been implemented in Lithuania with the adoption of the Republic of Lithuania Law on the Implementation of the European Union and International Legal Acts regulating civil procedure of 13 November 2008. (shrink)

The article emphasizes the importance of the Charter of Local Self-Government to the Lithuanian national legal system. Lithuania has ratified the Charter, not only acknowledged, but also committed to implement its provisions. The Charter consists of 13 items representing the essence of local self-government, which sets the content and is the principal purpose of local public. The principles should be not only a declaratory move into the national legal system, but also recognized as a state’s obligation to follow them. The (...) article analyzes the content of the Charter principles, their incorporation level in the national legal system. During the study noted that between the executive and local authorities are the differences of interpreting and dysfunctions implemented a few principles of the Charter: subsidiary and decentralization, local government financial autonomy and the freedom of formation executive local bodies. (shrink)

In the current study, we provided the evidence of satisfactory validity of the RS-14 scale in the Lithuanian adolescents’ sample, based on its internal structure, and relations to other variables. The results of the study indicated an acceptable model fit for a single-factor structure of the scale with a high internal consistency. We also confirmed the scalar measurement invariance across groups of adolescents in terms of their age and mental health profile as well as partial scalar gender invariance. Adolescents characterized (...) by high levels of socio-emotional problems reported lower levels of resilience, in comparison to adolescents that reported low levels of socio-emotional problems. However, the data indicated that adolescents from emotional problems and behavioral problems groups cannot be differentiated with the RS-14 scale. (shrink)

The article outlines some aspects of the civil law in Lithuania, an Eastern European country, which underwent an essential transformation in the last decades. The author outlines the development of the Lithuanian civil law from the oldest written sources up to the adoption of the new Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania in 2000. The author is critical about the denomination of Lithuania as a “new” state and draws attention to the history of Lithuanian law, which spans hundreds of (...) years. The article emphasizes the continuity of the legal tradition and the heterogeneity of law – the coexisting of several legal systems in the territory of one state. The article discusses the role of Roman Law in the legal system of Lithuania. Even though Roman Law has never been applied in Lithuania, the author argues that it nevertheless had an indirect influence on Lithuanian private law. Roman Law and Canonical Law were among the main sources while drafting the three codified acts, the Statutes of Lithuania, in 1529, 1566 and 1588. The knowledge of Roman Law acquired by lawyers at universities in other European countries was transmitted through drafting of the laws and the jurisdictional and administrative practices. (shrink)

The article examines the reception of Western philosophy in Lithuanian philosophy of religion. The purpose is to show how the discourse of philosophy of religion came about in Lithuania. This branch of philosophy has been not only culturally and socially important in Lithuania, it has been significant as well for the formation and maintenance of national identity. By the same token, it also was the most developed and controversial theoretically. The first part of the article lays out the genesis of (...) the autonomous Lithuanian philosophy of religion, though strongly influenced by the transformations in the broader context of European philosophy. For that reason it will be useful to present the ideas of the most prominent Lithuanian thinkers in the field who have successfully adopted and adapted vital trends in Western philosophy into the Lithuanian cultural and intellectual context. The second part of the article is less historical and more problematic as it deals with specific issues concerning faith, God, anthropological problems as reflected in the works of contemporary Lithuanian philosophers of religion. Only after having explored certain affiliations of Lithuanian philosophy of religion with Western thought can we state that, although the latter was the necessary precondition of the former, Lithuanian philosophy of religion does substantiate its sovereign status while correlating in an original way major cultural transformations with the changes in theoretical context, according to the specific concerns of Lithuanian society. In addition, this historical and philosophical examination aims to look at the formation of Lithuanian identity, mentality, values, their roots in the Christian tradition as well as the capacity to respond at critical historical moments. (shrink)

The present paper aims to report on the preliminary findings from the initial stages of ongoing research on hate speech in Lithuanian online comments. Comments are marked strongly by such phenomena as flaming and trolling; therefore, in this genre we can expect a high degree of hostility, obscenity, high incidence of insults and aggressive lexis, which can inflict harm to individuals or organizations. The goal of the current research is thus to make an attempt to identify some features of verbal (...) aggression in Lithuanian by applying the principles and instruments of corpus linguistics, which proved to be a useful approach when dealing with such issues as trolling. It is expected that further analysis of those features will help to identify and define formal linguistic criteria that could facilitate identification of hate speech in public discourse. The data has been obtained from the Lithuanian corpus of user-generated comments collected from one major Lithuanian portal, www.delfi.lt. The corpus consists of all the comments posted in the year 2014 and in total includes 17,909 comments, which make up 1,160,109 words. For the initial data analysis, linguistic aspects, such as wordlists, collocations, and formulaic language, were analysed by using the AntConc software. The interpretations of the results are still very tentative, but what the initial findings show is that overt aggression does not feature among the most frequent and most salient features of comments. Aggression is, in our data, indirectly expressed through creative language use, which can mainly be studied through qualitative analysis. (shrink)

The aim of the current research is to investigate the feasibility of identifying offensive language in Lithuanian by utilising the Simplified Offensive Language Taxonomy (SOLT). The key principle behind this taxonomy is its ability to complement existing offensive language ontologies and tagset systems, with the ultimate goal of integrating it into publicly accessible Linguistic Linked Open Data (LLOD) resources. The dataset used in the current study is a publicly available corpus of user-generated comments collected from a Lithuanian portal (Amilevičius et (...) al. 2016). The study identified that offensive language predominantly focuses on collective derogatory language rather than individuals. The most common category of offensive language is related to physical and mental disabilities, followed by ideological offenses, xenophobic and sexist remarks, and less frequent categories like ageism, classism, homophobia, and religious discrimination. These results highlight the diverse range of offensive language online and underscore the need to combat discrimination and promote respectful discourse, particularly concerning marginalised groups. (shrink)

The 6th of February 2005 marks the deadline of transposition of the EU Council Directive No. 2003/9/EC (Reception Conditions‘ Directive) into national legislation. This article is the second in a series of articles on transposition of the European Union Asylum Directives in Lithuania and remaining concerns. It analyses the transposition of the Reception Conditions Directive in the country, the impact of the directive‘s provisions on the development of the Lithuanian asylum law and draws attention to the remaining concerns in relation (...) to implementation of this directive in Lithuania. The authors illustrate the remaining concerns with practical and live examples/stories from Lithuania. (shrink)

The article deals with the legal acts which were adopted by the Supreme Council Reconstituting the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on 11 March 1990, and which are related to the restoration of the independent State of Lithuania. The author discloses the chronology of the legal acts adopted on that day and investigates why some particular act was adopted first, and only later another act was passed; he investigates the circumstances which determined the content of the legal acts and (...) shows the interconnection between these acts. The sequence and content of the legal acts of restoration of independence were determined by the fact that the independent State of Lithuania could not arise from the so-called “Lithuanian SSR” which had never been a form of Lithuanian statehood. The restoration of independence could and had to be grounded only upon the continuation of the pre-war Republic of Lithuania. One had to draw a boundary line between the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR, which was elected in democratic and free elections on 24 February 1990, and which was a genuine representation of the Nation, from the former Supreme Soviets of the Lithuanian SSR—the essence and formation procedure of which was completely different. This was done by adopting the Declaration “On the Powers of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR” in which it was held that in the 24 February 1990 elections the Nation vested to the deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR the mandate and the duty to restore the State of Lithuania and express the sovereign will of the Nation through this body, which, from 11 March 1990, 6 p.m., would be referred to as the Supreme Council of Lithuania. (shrink)

By taking into account dissident/political and art historical interpretations of Soviet art, I analyze how polemics about totalitarianism in the West, which generally corresponded with Cold War debates and Eastern European dissident thought, shaped the post-Soviet evaluations of national artistic legacies. It is argued that the political relationship with the totalitarian past, like in many post-socialist areas where the immediate past was subjected to radical re-evaluation, affected Lithuanian artists’ and critics’ attitude towards local Soviet art. Because of an obvious lack (...) of underground art in Soviet Lithuania, however, the retrospective usage of political categories here became problematic. Especially in international representations, the complexities of artists’ relationship with officialdom came to be routinely assigned to the phenomenon of non-conformism; this eventually obfuscated the differences between the Lithuanian Soviet art context as somewhat different from the Russian case. (shrink)

The Lithuanian success of implementing international obligation in order to encourage the regulation of labour relations by means of collective agreements is analyzed in this article. It is emphasized that development of social partnership is too slow, coverage of regulation of labour relations by means of collective agreement also is low-level and collective agreements basically are made at the plant level. It is noticed that, because of the need to find a suitable balance between implementing the international obligation to encourage (...) regulation of labour relations by means of collective agreements, and the necessity to undermine the raison d’être of the regulation by means of collective agreements itself, as the process, where attitudes of social partners has to be harmonised at maximum, the state has limited scope to influence the process of making collective agreements. (shrink)

The present article analyses the so-called ‘crime of denial’ recently established in Article 1702 of the Lithuanian Criminal Code. It describes how this crime was introduced in the Lithuanian Law, and the reasons for its present form and challenges. The crime has been applied in two instances (Stankeras case and Paleckis case). The author discusses these two instances of application, critically reviews the arguments of the Prosecutor’s Office and of the court of first instance and shows that at least in (...) the first cases of application of this crime, its objectives and particularities are misunderstood. (shrink)

This article reveals the implications that made the Lithuanian Council to step aside allowing the Temporary Government to continue the further process of restitution of Lithuania, immediately after becoming the central constitutional state institution. Prior to that, Lithuanian (State) Council had managed to declare the independence of Lithuania on the 16th of February 1918 under extremely difficult political circumstances and established the statehood on the 2nd of November of the same year. Under the will of the Vilnius conference of Lithuania (...) that took place in autumn of 1917, all Lithuanian political streams of these days have been represented in the Lithuanian Council. However, the Council itself has not managed to save the representative ability by agreeing with the resignation of its left element and by continuing the expansion and distance from the community of Lithuania. The Council has become an institution representing the right wing of the Lithuanian community which could not ensure any greater support. (shrink)

The tendencies of the development of the Lithuanian criminal procedure within the recent twenty years, after Lithuania has regained its independence, are analyzed in the present article. The main factors which influence lawmaking in the sphere of criminal procedure as well as in the application of the criminal procedure norms are discussed. The constitutional imperatives and the human rights, fixed in international and the European Union agreements as the main factors determining the evolution of the law of criminal procedure are (...) reviewed. It is stated that earlier, while amending or supplementing the Code of Criminal Procedure, the utmost attention used to the drawn to the legal tradition of the state, whereas the legal norms of the modern criminal procedure must be subordinated to the principles fixed in the Constitution. After having briefly reviewed the main tendencies of the development of criminal procedure, i.e. the constitutionalization and internationalizationeuropeization, the following conclusion is drawn: the mentioned tendencies have been producing a significant impact on the evolution of the Lithuanian criminal procedure after the restoration of independence and accession to the international treaties. However, the systemic and critical viewpoint towards the impact of the European Union law on the national law of criminal procedure is still missing. (shrink)

Over the past few years, universities in Lithuania have make changes to the legal study programs—obligatory subject Criminology moved to list of alternative optional subjects. Therefore, is increasing the number of new lawyers, who have not studied criminology, which thinking about criminals, crime victims, crime, its causes and successful impact on crime, is based on stereotype understanding of a few centuries ago. However, the new lawyers, being professionals, pre-trial investigators, advocates, prosecutors, judges play a crucial role in criminal proceedings, to (...) decide the fate of people, how to use public resources for crime control and prevention. They will make speeches during the hearing in courts savour of their complete incomprehension of processes speaking about. Purpose of the article is to assess what criminological competencies are important to lawyers today, what are the possible consequences for the Lithuanian society if lawyers do not acquire these competencies. There are used the methods of analysis, aggregation, comparison and others. (shrink)

This paper presents an analysis of the issue that as yet not been extensively researched in the doctrine of Lithuanian and foreign law: the issue of legal distinguishing between medicinal products and food supplements. In order to analyze the problems of theory and practice, the structure of the paper is divided into two parts. The first part concentrates on the main features of medicinal products and food supplements in accordance with the case law of the Court of Justice of the (...) European Union (CJEU). It is established that medicinal products must comply with one of these descriptions: be made and aimed towards healing and preventing sicknesses; cause serious threats to health or have health-hazardous secondary effects; and have very intense effects on physiological features of human organisms. Food supplements in theory should not have these features. However, sometimes in practice preparations identified as food supplements have large doses of certain medicinal substances or other ingredients (e.g. alcohol, plant extracts, vitamins, amino acids, and etc.) that present threats to human health. The practice of the CJEU shows that counterbalancing free movement and public health protection interests is problematic in this area. (shrink)

Recognition of the status of family in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania mandates the state authorities to care and provide for the family, to ensure the family members’ constitutional rights, and to ensure respect for family life. Such duties fall on both, the legislative and executive authorities. However, the enforcement of constitutional imperatives is not straightforward. One reason for this is that the Constitution does not contain any legal definition of ‘family’ or ‘family members’. Nor does the jurisprudence (...) of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania reveal the content of these notions. This, in turn, allows for various interpretations as to the scope of duties of state authorities and state attitude towards the family in general. In this context, the article aims to present approaches to the legal concept of family in Lithuanian legal doctrine, positive law and court practice. First, the article analyses the constitutional background of the concept of family and presents an overview of the ongoing political debate concerning this concept. Second, we analyse Lithuanian legal doctrine, scanty as it may be on this issue. Third, we examine the legislative specifics and the case law developed by the country’s highest judicial bodies with regard to the legal definition of ‘family’ and ‘family members’ in order to assess their impact on the state family policy in general. (shrink)

Notwithstanding constant “crises of confidence,” a high number of international disputes lay at the docket of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In the word of Judge Rosalyn Higgins, states are turning to the ICJ for the peaceful settlement of their disputes. The option provided by the Charter of the United Nations in limiting the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court to certain categories of disputes, clearly contributes to convening a greater number of states to accept this international jurisdiction, (...) resolve their disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law. Not surprisingly, only a few declarations provided in Article 36 of the Statute of the Court do not contain any reservation as to the limits of the Court’s competence. Interwar Lithuania contributed heavily to the strengthening of international justice. It was amongst the first members of the League of Nations to recognise the compulsory jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice and remained its faithful supporter until the very end of the Court’s activities. International justice provided at least titular security guarantees for the young nation. This faith of the Lithuanian government in relying on international justice was rewarded in full. The Lithuanian State defended its legitimate place amongst the independent nations and successfully stood up for its interests in all three cases before the Permanent Court. (shrink)