On the grounds of the fundamental value of the human rights, which is the human dignity, this article describes a basis of the right to health care in terms of quality, discloses its concept, reviews the spheres of health system in which this right is exercised: health care and public health. The right to health care is stressed as one of the fundamental rights, without which the person will not able to enjoy other rights: economic, political and social rights. It (...) comprises the right to enjoy the best physical and mental health. The right to health care is not absolute in itself: efficiency of its implementation depends upon both ability of administrative and institutional systems, which were created by the state, to properly implement the assigned functions and upon the individual, its state of health and lifestyle. (shrink)

Šio straipsnio tikslas – identifikuoti stigmos apraiškas asmeniniu, struktūriniu ir visuomeniniu lygmeniu, jos poveikį Lietuvos psichikos sveikatos priežiūros sistemai, sutrikusios psichikos asmenims ir šioje srityje priimamiems politiniams sprendimams. Pristatomi 2015–2016 m. tyrimų duomenys: žiniasklaidos diskurso analizė, psichikos sveikatos centrų pacientų subjektyvaus požiūrio į gautą gydymą tyrimas ir ekspertų nuomonės apie Lietuvos psichikos sveikatos priežiūros sistemos padėtį tyrimas.Rezultatai parodė, kad paslaugų vartotojus su stigma sieja išmoktas bejėgiškumas, taikstymasis su mažesnėmis galimybėmis, stigmos suvokimas skatina atsitraukti nuo aplinkinių, neįvardyti ligos. (...) Žiniasklaidos analizė taip pat išryškino šios asmenų grupės sumenkinimo tendencijas, ribotas jų galimybes dalyvauti formuojant diskursą. Ekspertų tyrimo rezultatai atskleidė stigmos poveikį psichikos sveikatos sistemai – dominuojantys diskursai padeda palaikyti stigmos poveikį instituciniu lygmeniu. Atskirus stigmos lygmenis sieja nekonstruktyvios įveikos schemos, grindžiamos psichiatrų mėginimais išlaikyti turimą galią, sutrikusios psichikos asmenų pastangos išsaugoti privatumą, žiniasklaidos reakcija į kritiką argumentuojant visuomenės teise žinoti.Asmeninės, visuomeninės ir struktūrinės stigmos analizė leidžia suvokti stigmos reiškinio daugiasluoksniškumą, identifikuoti paraleles tarp individualių patirčių ir pesimizmu bei stereotipais persmelkto požiūrio į visą psichikos sveikatos priežiūros sistemą. (shrink)

Notwithstanding the expectations related to the ‘invasion’ of human rights into the field of healthcare, the complexity of this field raises some problematic questions about the applicability of such a legal instrument. The present paper analyses the possible limits to the content of the core right to healthcare. These limits are discussed through the examination of two normative pillars of health law: the right to individual self-determination (or the principle of individual autonomy) and the right to healthcare itself. The authors (...) conclude that in the context of the scarcity of resources the effectiveness of the guarantees of the right to healthcare will depend on the narrowing of the concept of the right by choosing the biomedical definition of health as the basis. (shrink)

The principle of solidarity is one of the fundamental legal principles applied in the field of health care regulation. This article analyses EU and Lithuanian legal acts, judicial practice, the doctrine of law and foreign scientific resources in order to reveal the content of solidarity principle and to discuss its role in the legal regulation of health care both at EU and national levels. The article is divided into three parts. The first part of the paper examines the correlation between (...) the right to health established in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (the Charter) and the principle of solidarity as the fundamental value upon which the EU is ‘founded’ and which it seeks to ‘preserve and develop’, as the preamble to the Charter states. It is noticed that the principle of solidarity is one of the principles which characterize the European law on social protection. In the summary of the findings of the article, the author states that this principle can be considered as a tool to achieve a greater social cohesion within the EU Member States in defining and implementing all policies and activities in order to ensure a high level of human physical, mental and social health protection through, first of all, a reduction of health care inequalities. For that it is necessary to tackle the factors which determine health care inequalities among the EU Member States. (shrink)

Lithuania had a different experience in legal regulation of private property. There were periods when right to private ownership was denied and on the other hand – the periods when right to private ownership was respected and protected. Authors wanted to review today’s status of rights to private property in retrospective. The main purpose of the article is to reveal functions of private property in Lithuania. The article analyzes peculiarities of legal regulation of private property in Lithuania during different stages (...) of the state’s development. The authors have analyzed the social significance of the right to private property, how it changed and how it has been reflected in Lithuanian legislation and the case law of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania, paying a particular attention to entrenchment of the right to private property in the Constitution of Lithuania. The authors evaluate the compliance of the national legal regulation and Article 1 of the First Protocol with the European Convention on Human Rights, and the case law of the European Court of Justice. (shrink)

In this article, we explore the concept of African communitarianism and reflect on its potential value for ecojustice education as a localised response to the wider ecological crises that i...

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos bioetikos ir sociologijos tarpdalykinio diskurso galimybės sprendžiant šiuolaikines moralės dilemas. Apžvelgiant bioetikos ir sociologijos disciplinų raidą, atskleidžiami paradigminiai šių disciplinų skirtumai ir joms atstovaujančių mokslininkų požiūriai į etines sveikatos priežiūros problemas. Tradicinėmis laikytos klasikinės biomedicinos etikos temos, kaip, pvz., pacientų teisės medicinoje, eksperimentinių biomedicininių tyrimų su žmonėmis pagrįstumas, eutanazija ar klonavimas, vis dažniau yra analizuojamos empiriniu požiūriu pasitelkiant socialinių tyrimų metodus. Tačiau bioetikos diskurse socialinių tyrimų rezultatai (pvz., visuomenės nuomonės apklausos) yra ignoruojami, ir atvirkščiai – medicinos sociologijos (...) tekstuose vengiama normatyvinės etikos vartojamų teorinių nuostatų ar tuo labiau filosofinės sąvokų analizės. Straipsnyje aptariamos naujos tarpdalykinės nišos – bioetikos sociologijos ir sociologijos bioetikos teorinės perspektyvos. Nagrinėjama, kaip bioetikos ir socialinių mokslų tyrėjų bei ekspertų naudojami problemų sprendimo instrumentai galėtų būti integruojami į bendrą konstruktyvią mokslinę diskusiją ir kokios galimos (medicinos ar sveikatos) sociologijos ir bioetikos (ar medicinos etikos) bendradarbiavimo išdavos. (shrink)

In recent years consumer law has come more and more into the focus of legislation within the EU. One of the EU’s key objectives, completing the final stage of the internal market, is to place consumer rights in the centre of it. Following the adaption of various consumer law measures for some decades, the EU has undertaken a thorough review of its consumer acquis. After years of consultations, the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/ EU, which was supposed to set new standards (...) of consumer protection, came into force and will have to be implemented by the Member States by 13 December, 2013. Renouncing its principal practice of minimum harmonisation in the area of consumer law, i.e. allowing Member States on the basis of Directives to adopt more protective rules, the EU legislator now turned to a targeted full harmonisation approach by means of the Consumer Rights Directive, aiming at increasing the consumer protection across the EU by bringing together the currently distinct laws for distance selling and off-premises contracts as well as other types of consumer contracts in a single instrument. The article briefly introduces the background of the Directive and discusses the shift in means of harmonisation concepts. Then, it analyses the scope, concepts and content of the Directive, which mainly brings considerable reforms in the areas of information requirements and the right of withdrawal. Taking into account the Directive’s improvements and shortcomings, conclusions are drawn that further harmonisation and a uniform and universally applicable set of European consumer rights are needed. (shrink)

Interim measures are procedural means that allow persons or States to have their rights preserved when a case is pending. Application of these measures especially in environmental cases is very important. In many of these cases (e.g. cases dealing with territorial planning, IPPC permits, environmental impact assessment, etc.) the claims deal with the protection of environment or its components (water, air, soil, etc.) as well as with the protection of public interest. Legal regulation of application of interim measures provided by (...) Lithuanian Law on Administrative Proceedings is not optimal. That is why the first part of the article is dedicated to the analysis of the possibilities and problems of application of interim measures in the administrative proceedings in Lithuania, paying special attention to environmental cases. The second part of the article reflects the findings of a workshop of the Association of European Administrative Judges on „Interim relief in environmental matters” held in Vilnius on 22 September 2011. It briefly describes various national rules on interim relief procedures, especially in the German and the French legislation, with an assessment from the German point of view. This part of the article focuses on provisional legal protection where a permit is challenged by a third party whose rights are allegedly afflicted. In such a constellation the rights of the plaintiff compete with the rights of the operator. The article concludes that, when deciding on the necessity of interim measures, it is vital to ensure the balance of interests: both by ensuring effective access to justice and by protecting the respondent and the third party (in environmental cases - usually the operator) from the violation of their rights and the damage caused by the abuse of the right to request interim measures. In such cases short time limits for procedural steps both of the parties and the court are not advisable and a prima facie prognosis on the outcome in the main proceedings meets the interests of the parties. (shrink)

Although the Lisbon Treaty maintained the general exclusion of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) matters from ECJ jurisdiction, it introduced a number of changes into this area, including an explicit statement that the Court is competent to review the legality of the Council decisions imposing restraining measures on persons. The article analyzes the nature and origin of those changes and considers the legal implications for the level of the protection of fundamental rights in the European Union. For this purpose (...) the author firstly considers the context of the exclusion of CFSP matters from the ECJ jurisdiction, including discussions on the issue at the European Convention, and, secondly, takes a closer look at the separate heads of jurisdiction over which the Court is competent to act after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. A conclusion is made that the Lisbon Treaty did not introduce significant changes to ECJ jurisdiction. Similarly to the pattern of previous amendment treaties, the Lisbon Treaty again gave recognition to the practice of the ECJ on relevant questions. Nonetheless, the amendments made by the Lisbon Treaty should be welcome for introducing more clarity into the legal regulation of the matter, thus boosting the legal certainty and protection of fundamental rights in the European Union. (shrink)

Starting from 2009, national courts of the EU Member States for the first time gained a “real” right to request the EU Court of Justice for preliminary rulings in asylum matters. First judgments of this Court demonstrate equivocal tendencies: some are blaming the Court for incompetence in asylum matters, others believe that the adoption of authoritative decisions at the European level will assist in developing consistent practice of applying asylum law in the European Union, something that failed at international level (...) due to absence of a single authoritative body to provide guidance on interpretation and application of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Considering that the judgments of the EU Court are part of the EU law, the Member States should develop their national asylum law with due regard being taken to those judgments. By the beginning of 2012, the Court has issued eight judgments on the interpretation of various problematic issues of EU asylum law. This Article analyses the jurisprudence of the EU Court in asylum cases, related to the granting of refugee status and subsidiary protection. It also provides a critical evaluation of those judgments. The main objective of the Article is to familiarise the relevant Lithuanian institutions and lawyers with the first judgments of the EU Court in asylum cases and encourage discussions concerning the application of rules established by the Court in the Lithuanian context. Due to limited size, this Article presents the analysis of two EU Court judgments adopted on interpretation of the 2004 Qualification Directive: Elgafaji v. The Netherlands (2009) dealing with granting of subsidiary protection, and Abdulla and others v. Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2010), dealing with cessation of refugee status. The value of those judgments first of all lies in the guidance they provided to the Member States on such concepts as: protection in a situation of an armed conflict, agents of protection, effectiveness of protection; as well as determination of a relationship between refugee status and subsidiary protection, relationship of the Qualification Directive with the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), also cessation of protection. Elgafaji decision, while quite liberal with regard to persons seeking international protection, is not so liberally applied in the Member States’ practice and does not in itself guarantee positive outcome of the application of a concrete individual fleeing from an armed conflict, or a liberal approach to granting subsidiary protection in the Member States. Based on Elgafaji judgment it is clear that: Art. 15(b) of the Qualification Directive correspond to Art. 3 ECHR, while Art. 15(c) provides additional protection and in that it expands the Member States’ obligations beyond the ECHR to provide protection to persons fleeing in situations of armed conflict. While not every person arriving from an armed conflict situation would automatically fall under the granting of subsidiary protection, in certain exceptional situations indiscriminate violence may amount to individual threat without invoking personal circumstances. The EU Court departed from the individualisation requirement applied by the European Court of Human Rights in Art. 3 cases and did not also rely on international humanitarian law, by introducing a “sliding scale” formula for establishing an individual threat in armed conflict situation instead. This formula addressed the alleged internal discrepancy between “individual threat” and “indiscriminate violence”. The Abdulla decision brought in the human rights and law enforcement perspectives to the interpretation of cessation clauses, however it represents a rather superficial approach in the context of the analysed concepts (e.g. towards effectiveness of protection provided by the multinational armed forces) and is likely to be incompatible with the latest legislative trends in the EU asylum instruments (e.g. determination of refugee status and subsidiary protection by means of a single procedure) and the recent jurisprudence under the ECHR (e.g. failure to ensure a minimum standard of living may violate the ECHR). (shrink)

The article deals with the question whether a state might be held liable for the infringement of the European Convention on Human Rights if its national court of last instance fails to implement the obligation to make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union under the conditions laid down in Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and developed in the case-law of the Court. Relying on well-established (...) practice that an arbitrary decision not to refer a question for a preliminary ruling theoretically could infringe the right to a fair trial, the author analyses the practical application of the “arbitrariness rule” and discusses whether the European Court of Human Rights has established any specific criteria that national courts are required to bring into play in order to substantiate the decision not to refer. (shrink)

The article analyzes preconditions of realization of the right to religious education in Lithuania during the period of compulsory education. The article consists of two parts. The essence of the freedom of thought, religion and conscience and their relation to religious education is discussed in the first part. The second part of the article analyses national legal framework related to compulsory education in the light of freedom of thought, religion and conscience. The states are required to ensure education of children (...) according to religious convictions of their parents and needs of the children themselves. The Lithuanian legal regulation, however, allows certain ambiguities as to how effectively may the right to religious education be realised. (shrink)

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama kūrybinė klasė. Kritikuojama R. Floridos samprata, pasak kurios, tai – visuomenės grupė, gaminanti ekonomines vertes savo kūrybine veikla. Anot straipsnio autoriaus, ne visi kūrybininkai įsitraukia į ekonominę veiklą ir ne visi kūrybos produktai dalyvauja ekonominėje apyvartoje. Demokratija kaip daugumos valdžia pati savaime nesuponuoja nei kūrybos visuomenės, nei jos kūrybinės raidos, o medijuota visuomenė netgi stabdo kūrybos sklaidą nepaisant atsivėrusių neribotų komunikacinių perspektyvų. Apie kūrybinę klasę galima kalbėti tik tuo atveju, jeigu nuo jos atskiriame kažkokias kitas mažiau kūrybingas ar (...) nekūrybingas klases. Straipsnyje keliami klausimai: ar kitos – mažiau kūrybingos (nekūrybingos) – klasės yra kūrybos visuomenės dalis; koks jų vaidmuo ne tik apibrėžiant kūrybinę klasę, bet ir formuojantis kūrybos visuomenei; kuo remdamiesi neigiame šių klasių teisę į kūrybingumą, kuri neatsiejama nuo žmogaus veiklos apskritai; koks sąmoningo tapatinimosi su kūrybos klase vaidmuo apibrėžiant kūrybininką; ar kūrybinė klasė nėra priedanga plėtoti tam tikru išskirtinumu paremtą politiką; ar kūrybinėje aplinkoje gali tarpti ir nekūrybingi individai; ar mažiau kūrybingos (nekūrybingos) klasės apibrėžtinos tik neigiamai (kaip stokojančios kūrybingumo); ar kūrybos visuomenėje mažiau kūrybingų (nekūrybingų) klasių laukia neišvengiama ekspropriacija? (shrink)

Lyčių lygybė ir atitinkamai moterų teisės – vienas esminių demokratijos principų. Atskleidus tam tikros šalies gyventojų lyčių lygybės suvokimą, galima svarstyti apie demokratizacijos procesų eigą šalyje. Straipsnyje1, remiantis kiekybinių tyrimų duomenimis, siekiama sociologiškai įvertinti Lietuvos demokratizacijos procesus lyčių lygybės principo taikymo atžvilgiu atskleidžiant moters teisių bei lygybės atspindžius bendroje demokratijos sampratoje, visuomenei būdingą lygių teisių ir galimybių garantų vertinimą, lyčių teisių svarbos ir jų įgyvendinimo lygio supratimą bei lyčių diskriminacijos suvokimą.Teigiama, kad nors Lietuvos gyventojų požiūriu šalyje dideliu mastu įgyvendinta lyčių (...) lygybė, vis dėlto viešajame diskurse padėtis vyrų teisių įgyvendinimo srityje dažniau suvokiama esanti geresnė nei moterų. Pažymima, kad beveik trečdalis Lietuvos gyventojų suvokia lyčių lygybės principo ir žmogaus teisės į lygybę pažeidimus bei diskriminacijos dėl lyties egzistavimą. (shrink)

Hannah Arendt plačiai žinoma kaip filosofė, kuri mėgino reabilituoti senovės graikų politikos sampratą. Remiantis Žmogaus būklės skaitymu, Arendt paprastai laikoma „graikofile“, jai prikišama „Atėnų nostalgija“. Sunku paneigti Arendt simpatijas graikams – ji iš tiesų atsigręžė į atėniečių politikos supratimą, bandydama jame iškristalizuoti kertinius autentiškos politikos elementus. Vis dėlto ši interpretacija yra pernelyg vienpusiška. Didžiausius nuopelnus politikos suvokimo srityje Arendt priskiria ne graikams, o romėnams. Pastarieji žymiai geriau sprendė politikos stabilumo, tęstinumo ir tvarumo problemą. Visą dėmesį sutelkiant į veiksmą, spontaniškumą ir (...) nepaprastus žygdarbius, kyla grėsmė destabilizuoti ir „išcentruoti“ politinės bend­rijos gyvenimą. Romėnai, įvesdami tokias sąvokas kaip tradicija, autoritetas, steigties (įkūrimo) šventumas, teisė (lex), taip pat pabrėždami politinę atleidimo ir pažado reikšmę, atveria graikams svetimą politinės sedimentacijos plotmę. Ši plotmė suteikia būtinus saugiklius, be kurių tvari politinė egzistencija yra neįmanoma. (shrink)

Neonatūralisto Josepho Rouse’o kultūrinių mokslinio žinojimo studijų filosofinė programa yra natūros ir kultūros, taip pat mokslinio ir nemokslinio žinojimo radikalios atskirties kritika, inicijuojanti autonomiško mokslo sampratos suspendavimą. Dimitrijaus Ginevo kognityvinio egzistencializmo (hermeneutinės fenomenologijos atmainos) požiūriu, kultūrinė mokslo autonomija yra pamatinis demokratijos ramstis, o natūralistinis „postmodernus“ mokslo „nuvietinimas“ vertinamas kaip kultūros ir visuomenės scientifikacijos grėsmė. Tad ginti kultūrą, visuomenę, demokratiją, o kartu ir savo teises į mokslo tyrimus yra hermeneutinio naratyvo akademinė-pilietinė priedermė. Kultūrinių mokslinio žinojimo studijų požiūriu – atvirkščiai – mokslo (...) autonomijos idėjos (modernybės naratyvo relikto) propagavimas tolygus kultūrinei mokslo stigmatizacijai, o hermeneutinė fenomenologija pati ją skatina. Straipsnio tikslas – palyginti neonatūralistinę ir hermeneutinę-fenomenologinę mokslo topologijas iš „metafilosofinės“ perspektyvos ir įvertinti jų bendradarbiavimo galimybes. (shrink)

The article deals with the question whether a state might be held liable for the infringement of constitutional law if its national court of last instance violates the obligation to make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union under the conditions laid down in Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and developed in the case-law of the Court. Relying on the well-established practice of the European Court (...) of Human Rights, which accepts that in theory an arbitrary decision not to refer a question for a preliminary ruling could infringe the right to a fair trial established in the ECHR, the author analyses whether constitutional courts of Germany, Czech Republic, Spain and Lithuania have elaborated the equivalent practice and if so, whether they have established any specific criteria that national courts are required to bring into play in order to substantiate the decision not to refer. (shrink)

Požiūriai į Lietuvos narystę Europos Bendrijoje (vėliau – Europos Sąjungoje) empiriškai buvo pradėti tirti jau pirmosiose reprezentatyviose visuomenės nuomonės apklausose. Vienas iš pirmųjų, jau 1991 m., šią temą nagrinėjo Viešosios nuomonės tyrimų centras prie Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Filosofijos, sociologijos ir teisės instituto. Nuo to laiko atlikta daug reprezentatyvių tyrimų, keitėsi požiūriai į narystę, kito pritarimo ar nepritarimo narystei motyvai, tematinis diskursas, temos aktualumas visuomenėje. Šiame straipsnyje ir siekiama apžvelgti dinaminius požiūrio į narystę aspektus. Parodoma, kad po itin palankaus narystės palaikymo (...) prieš 25-erius metus prasidėjo skepticizmo periodas, kuris vėliau peraugo į entuziastingą pritarimą narystei. Paskutinieji tyrimai taip pat rodo aukštą narystės palaikymo lygį. Šis palaikymas prieš euroreferendumą buvo nulemtas ne tiek tikėjimosi konkrečios naudos sau, kiek vilties, kad bus geriau vaikams, Lietuvai apskritai. Tai viena iš priežasčių, kodėl vėliau nebuvo fiksuojamas nusivylimas naryste. Pasisakantys už narystę Europos Sąjungoje ir anksčiau, ir dabar yra jaunesni, labiau išsilavinę, kvalifikuoti, didžiųjų miestų gyventojai. Straipsnis parengtas įgyvendinant Lietuvos mokslo tarybos finansuotą projektą „ES valstybių narių elitų ir gyventojų požiūrių į ES raida (2004–2018)“. Sutarties Nr. MIP-025/2015. (shrink)

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees embody fundamental provisions of refugee law. However, since the adoption of these documents the world has changed dramatically and the laws are not developing fast enough in order to catch up with dynamically changing contemporary situations. The application and interpretation of definition of a refugee was developed through traditional practice of Western states, which was influenced by two world wars and the (...) Cold War, when refugees from Africa or Asia were uncommon. The Qualification Directive specifically aims at ensuring that the member states apply common qualification criteria for persons who need international protection in line with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The author supports the statement that the Qualification Directive in principle aims at bringing back under the definition of refugee those, who have been left outside of its scope during the last decades as a result of the restrictive interpretation and application of the definition of refugee. (shrink)

This article aims to analyze the legal regulation of performers’ rights in Lithuania. Analysis is divided in two parts: the first part analyses performers’ economic rights by comparing them to the authors’ economic rights and the legal regulation of performers’ rights in foreign countries; the second part of article focuses on the different content of performers’ economic rights due to the mean of fixation of performance (unfixed performance, performance fixed to the phonogram, audiovisual fixation of performance). Analysis of the Lithuanian (...) legal regulation on performers’ economic right has shown that although Copyright Law of Lithuania in general complies with international and EU acts governing performers’ rights, four main fields of legal regulation need to be revised. Firstly, Copyright Law should provide that when concluding an agreement concerning an audiovisual fixation of his performance with a producer of audiovisual work the performer transfers his exclusive rights to the producer, the performer shall retain an unwaivable right to receive an equitable remuneration for every transferred exclusive right. Secondly, the legal definition of phonogram published for the commercial purposes should be provided in the Law on Copyright of Lithuania. (shrink)

Regulatory approach to the right to abortion in Europe is diverse and basically related to the issue of when the right to life begins and how this question is reflected in national legislation. Such an approach and diversity is tolerated by the European Court of Human Rights, but only if some specific standards and criteria formulated in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights are reflected in national legislation. Research of the Lithuanian legal acts conducted in the light (...) of the jurisprudence of the Court shows that they are not in accordance with the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the solutions are therefore suggested. The aim of the article is to systematically analyse the Lithuanian legal acts regulating issues of abortion and to identify the existing problems and provide suggestions as to how to solve those problems with the help of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in abortion cases. Analysis of the Lithuanian legal acts reveals that the existing legal regulation and practice is confusing and ambiguous. Abortion questions are regulated in Lithuania by means of secondary legislation, namely by order of the Health Minister which is more than 15 years old, and the classification of diseases dangerous to woman’s health and life is based on international classification that is invalid. The order is not in reconciled with the Lithuanian criminal law. Some other ambiguities and problems are identified in the article. Abortion on a woman’s request in Lithuania is possible by the end of the 12 week of pregnancy and during the entire pregnancy, if it causes danger to woman’s health and life. The Lithuanian legislator requires that both conditions – danger to woman’s health and life – are met in order to terminate pregnancy what is unnecessary and sometimes even confusing. The author suggests providing two separate bases for abortion – danger to woman’s life or health. Foetus problems – if a foetus is irreversibly damaged or suffering from an incurable life-threatening disease, it is not a separate basis for abortion in Lithuania, however those abnormalities of the foetus are related to the health and life of a pregnant woman. In the opinion of the author, looking into the practice of the other EU countries, it is better to provide a separate ground for abortion because of abnormalities of the foetus. The basic problem in Lithuania that is similar in Poland and in Ireland is that there is no clear procedure in case a pregnant woman is not satisfied with the decision of the medical commission regarding the question of her abortion or if the opinion of members of the commission is diverse – no time guidance or appeal institution is provided. (shrink)

The extent to which the legal doctrine addresses manifestations of constitutionalism has been constantly growing. However, the majority of research in constitutionalism focuses on the analysis of the power of the Constitution and the fundamental principles entrenched in it whereas ordinary branches of law, including civil procedure, affected by the constitutional law remains outside the scope of a deeper analysis. The author of the present paper is convinced that certain aspects of the impact of constitutional justice on such branches as, (...) in particular, civil procedure deserve deeper interest. The modest scope of the paper precludes an extensive analysis of the role of the Constitution as a fundamental binding Act and today’s abundant doctrine of Lithuania’s Constitutional Court in civil procedure. Therefore, the present paper is confined to an analysis of individual aspects of direct application of the Constitution and the doctrine of the Constitutional Court. The article analyses the power of the Constitution and its impact on the civil procedure as an Act laying down the fundamental principles binding the legislator in adopting procedural instruments and principles to be followed by courts and as a remedy for violations of rights or a tool to address loopholes and collisions of law. Courts of general jurisdiction perform the control of legitimacy of legal Acts by checking their compliance with the Constitution in individual cases and by applying to the Constitutional Court for repeal of anticonstitutional norms or by applying the Constitution as an Act of direct effect to eliminate loopholes, interpret statutes and deal with collisions of legal norms. The author believes that the fact that the courts of general jurisdiction frequently raise questions of incompliance of legal Acts with the Constitution and decisively apply to the Constitutional Court evidences a high level of legal culture and legal consciousness of the judges. That fact may also serve as a precondition for the growth of confidence in the judiciary as judicial procedures may contain no uncertainties as to the constitutionality of the statutes to be followed in litigation. (shrink)

The right of a person, who is a victim of a criminal act, to access justice (court) according to the criminal legal order, is analyzed in this article. The right to appeal to a court is analyzed as a constituent part of the principle of accessibility to legal defence. Pre-eminently, the general constitutional fundamentals of the right towards legal defence are estimated. The provisions of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, i.e. that the right towards legal defence of (...) the infringed rights is absolute, is analyzed while taking into consideration the attitude formed by the international courts, i.e. that the right to justice is not an absolute and can only be restricted by being ruled by the principle of proportionality and the other legal principles. (shrink)

This paper presents the results of an empirical study that reflects monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of some legal acts on the labour of the Republic of Lithuania. The analysis of legal documents at the national and international level is provided. A review of cognate studies conducted by foreign and Lithuanian researchers is presented and the professional situation of a Lithuanian teacher from the employee rights perspective is highlighted. The professional activities contexts and sectors, wherein systematic violations of teachers’ (...) rights to a healthy and safe working environment are possible, are distinguished. A lack of generalized scientific data of employee (especially teacher) working conditions, the actual security of relevant rights and its monitoring and evaluation is still felt both in the country and abroad. A contradiction between: a) insufficient research of the issue and b) its importance to science and practice, exactly presupposes the scientific problems of the empirical study presented in the given paper. The subject of the study: teachers’ rights to a healthy and safe working environment and a fair remuneration for their work. The objective of the study: to conduct monitoring and evaluation of the effective implementation of relevant legal norms and legal acts applying a written sociological survey. The study is based on the results of a mass country-wide written survey of teachers. (shrink)

The article construes a modern concept of human dignity and factors influencing it. On the grounds of the Antique Greek-Roman notion of a human being as in-dividuus (Lat. not divisible, integral) and per-sona (Lat. mask, role played by an actor), the ambiguity of the human dignity is revealed: on one hand, every human being enjoys an unchangeable and non-deprivable dignity of the human being, on the other hand, the human being, as a creature and participant of social relations, himself/herself creates (...) the dignity of a person. On the grounds of the hermeneutical attitude, it is shown that that human dignity (within the meaning of individuum) may be protected only by means of the guarantees of particular human rights and, vice versa, only by ensuring particular human rights one may also guarantee the protection of human dignity. (shrink)

The article deals with the constitutional right of a person to apply to court. While construing this constitutionally entrenched right of a person, one analyses the doctrine of the right of a person to apply to court, which was formed in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. The right of a person to court is entrenched expressis verbis in Paragraph 1 of Article 30 of the Constitution whereby the person whose constitutional rights or freedoms are (...) violated shall have the right to apply to court. The doctrine of the Constitutional Court derives this right also from the constitutional principle of a state under the rule of law. The right of a person to court is inseparable from other norms and principles of the Constitution, which are equality of rights, the right to compensation of damage, the right to a proper court process, etc. (shrink)

The Article analyses how one of the basic consumer rights – the right to information – is regulated in the European Commission Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on consumer rights (hereinafter referred to as the Proposal): the article analyses trends of regulation of the consumers’ right to receive information; problems related to the scope of provided information and the issue of consumer standard that should be used in evaluating the sufficiency of provided information (...) and transparency of contract terms. Furthermore, additional possibilities to improve the consumer right to receive information at the national level are shortly discussed. The regulation of the consumer right to receive information established in the Proposal may imply a new era in the regulation of the B2C relations, where the aim to ensure high common level of consumer protection is opposed against the aim to ensure the balance of interests of consumers and business. Such „slight“ conversion of the aims may impact the application of legal norms regulating consumer right to information and the scope of the disclosure obligation of the business, while reducing the level of the consumer protection. (shrink)

In the twenty-first century, human rights play a very important role in modern society. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, released on 10 December 1948th was thought to become an everlasting source of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The Declaration corresponds to the situation that global community was facing 60 years ago. Today it is a collection of articles that is the cornerstone of the whole system of human rights protection. However, gross human rights atrocities, the dynamic process of legislation, (...) technological progress and changing social values have prompted many to revise the concept of human rights. Today many areas of life have changed: we have untraditional marriages and families, the individual enjoys a completely different social status than 60 years ago. These factors have prompted the creation of an entirely new dimension to human rights and freedoms based on personal autonomy, dynamics and self-regulation. Nowadays, the realization of rights and the aspiration to personal happiness are closely connected with personal autonomy. Autos and nomos—these two terms describe the ability of an individual to initiate one’s actions, to realize them by making independent decisions. This article analyzes whether this ability is a natural right or a privilege, what factors determine the exercise of this right, and what is the role of the state in this process. (shrink)

Approximately twenty years after it was necessary to fight for human rights, the time came when it was necessary to do it again. Or to begin at the very least to protect them very strongly and thoroughly in a preventive manner. Other methods and means will revert to time when human rights were formally anchored but their material establishment is not yet realized, or not at least to the extent expected corresponding to their real substance. The beginning of the 90’s (...) in Central and Eastern Europe was a success in that human rights began to be looked on as natural, forming the basis of democratic State respecting the rule of law. Today we are increasingly more often encountering the reality that human rights, on the contrary, to the same extent that they have been able to be established, they are losing in value. The biggest danger consists in the fact that limiting of human rights often is attended by silence, without wider public discussion or deliberations. The lack of qualified discussion during the limiting of human rights by way of laws and implementing regulations is however a systemic problem. Correction of its results can be often very complex and doing away with the causes a long term effort. It is dependent on the quality of representative democracy and of the civil society as well. This article is devoted to problem of implementation of evidence of data accompanying telecommunications traffic, the so-called data retention, and in its development from lack of legal regulation to roughly unconstitutional legal regulation and finally to hope for a reasonably constitutional solution. (shrink)

For the last several decades, ensuring human rights and national security have remained an important goal and a condition for existence of every state. The interests of national security often presuppose the need to narrow some natural rights, such as, for example, the right to privacy, the right to secrecy of communication, etc. Traditional concept of security is related to ensuring national security. According to the traditional concept of security, the state is considered the main object of security; therefore, the (...) states mainly focus on external threats. It is stated that the most important thing is to protect the state from external aggression, ensure protection of state borders and institutions. Protection of human rights is ensured simultaneously. It is, however, observed that a secure state does not necessarily mean that the citizens of the state are secure. Security of a person is under threat due to limitations imposed on human rights while seeking to ensure national security. (shrink)

During the last twenty – thirty years there has been unprecedented demand for new legal regulation in the field of environmental protection, which influenced the immense growth in both the body of environmental legislation and in re-thinking the idea and principles of the environmental protection itself. The provisions of environmental law are passed, accepted and obeyed with a great resistance in the society. On the one hand, environmental law may be defined as a value system that seeks to induce humans (...) to act as stewards of nature rather than only its exploiters, and therefore the environmental provisions are construed in a manner that the main instruments are limitations of different activities in order to prevent the disruption of natural systems. On the other hand, by doing so the environmental law places nature and future generations (those categories commonly do not have any legal personality) and not the human (the sole addressee and the beneficiary of the traditional legal system) in the centre of environmental regulation. This concept radically transforms the relationship between nature and mankind by subordinating the initiative to benefit from legal regulation. By doing so, the environmental provisions make the opposite and evolve tension in respect of such rights as the right to property, the right to personal life, or individual welfare. In the present research the aim is to disclose the origins and the most important principles of international and regional legal regulation of environmental protection, and to analyse the essence of environmental law in the context of public interest. The environmental law is analysed in the context of such human rights as the right to property and the right to personal life. (shrink)

Regulation No 17: First Regulation implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty set out that in carrying out the duties assigned to it by Article 89 and by provisions adopted under Article 87 of the Treaty, the officials authorized by the EU Commission were empowered inter alia to enter any premises, land and means of transport of undertakings. Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 (...) and 82 of the Treaty has expanded Commission’s powers stating that Commission can by decision order an inspection to be conducted in any other premises, land and means of transport, including the homes of directors, managers and other members of staff of the undertakings and associations of undertakings concerned. Such an expansion of the investigative powers of the Commission raises a question of the balance between effectiveness of the EU competition law and a person’s right to privacy, which is guaranteed to everyone by the Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Nevertheless this right is not absolute and the conditions for the possible limitations of the exercise of it are enshrined in paragraph 2 of the same article. For this reason the aim of this article is to find out whether Commission’s power to carry out searches in private homes meet the requirements set in Article 8(2) of the Convention, i.e., whether the Commission’s power to conduct such searches could be justified under the ECHR Article 8(2). In this study, the authors analyse the Commission’s extended investigative powers, clarify what is covered by the concept of “privacy”, evaluate the requirements set in Article 8(2) of the Convention, analyse conditions of exercising Commission’s extended investigative power and thus qualify if the latter satisfies the requirements set in Article 8(2) of the ECHR. (shrink)

This article investigates the use of natural law in biolaw from the specific perspective of an attorney practising before the European Court of Human Rights. Starting from an exploration of the question of who is a human and thereby to be protected under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), particular emphasis is placed on the right to life under Art. 2(1) ECHR. It is shown that natural law can – and should – impact the interpretation of the European Convention (...) on Human Rights and that concrete consequences follow from this approach, most notably the requirement to ensure that every human being, including the unborn, is actively protected as concerns the right to life. (shrink)

The article critically analyzes the conservative conception of passive or static human dignity in accordance with which human’s value is seen as value coming from the exterior (from God or from a biological human’s nature), or value seen as existing per se. In opposition to this conception, a conception of active or created dignity is being developed, which aims at treating human’s dignity not like a social relationship, but rather like a person’s individual ability to live properly in the society (...) (participate in barter relations on the ground of equivalence) and using this propriety to create own individual social value (dignity), as a personal contribution towards maintenance of concord and collaboration in the society. (shrink)

Human rights stem from community values; therefore, even today they may develop only on the basis of the values of a particular community. When the interests of a society change, new threats to the same value originate. A constant scientific dialogue is necessary in order to neutralise these threats effectively. The current socio-cultural context reveals the problems related to the legal protection of human dignity through a contraposition of instrumental and teleological attitude towards the human dignity. The article discusses ideological (...) provisions theological ideas of Judaism, Christianity, natural rights, especially the provisions of the Stoa, and the concept of I. Kant which became the grounds for declaring every person to be equally respectable and for recognising every person as a subject of law. This enabled people to create individual social value under the conditions of dignified existence. The author also discusses the extent to which the ideological excursus allows filling in the gaps of legal protection and serving the present universal consent on the common value human dignity. (shrink)

The importance of the right to education reaches far beyond education itself. The right to education is recognized, promoted and protected at all levels— from local to global. The concept of each human right constitutes a dual perception—human rights are personified and there are particular duty-bearers, most often the states, which have certain obligations to preserve and protect those rights. This article summarizes governmental obligations, foreseen in international and regional legal human rights’ instruments, corresponding to the right to education in (...) its entirety. The conceptual framework for the content and scope of the right to education is established by different human rights institutions and judicial bodies and implicates the concept of quantitative and qualitative measures, expressed by four guidelines—availability, accessibility, acceptability, adaptability. (shrink)

Various special investigative methods are more often applied nowadays; their use is unavoidably induced by today’s reality in combating organised crime in the spheres such as corruption, prostitution, drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, money counterfeit and etc. Therefore, special secret investigative methods are more often used and they are very effective in gathering evidence for the purpose of detecting and investigating very well-organised or latent crimes. Both the Convention on the Protection on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms itself, i.e. its (...) Article 6, and other international instruments, such as the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention, the Council of Europe’s Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and others, do not prohibit the use of special investigative methods, provided that their use does not violate human rights. The use of special investigative methods, such as undercover agents or other undercover investigative methods, cannot in itself infringe human rights and the right to a fair trial; however, its use must have clear limits and safeguards. The recent judgements of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the use of undercover agents confirm that the use of undercover agents in certain types of cases is often unavoidable and also very problematic, because the Court imposes on the member states of the Convention increasingly wider obligations. Partly this is determined by the fact that the current jurisprudence of the Court is still in the state of formation, therefore many questions are left unanswered. (shrink)

Protecting consumers' rights set higher standards on the rights of security compared with other participants of civil turnover, so the concept of consumer acquires not only theoretical but also practical significance. Definition of consumer must be sufficiently clear and precise as the proper subject of classification depends on what rules will apply to legal relationships arising. To this purpose, the concept of consumer is formulated as the concept of both the European Union and national legislation. Both presented the concept of (...) consumer that is defined in accordance with the formal characteristics and prejudices that individuals are the weaker party without the actual value of that person experiences and knowledge and so on. (shrink)

With reference to the Dutch model, which has been adopted by the Lithuanian Civil Code, the possibility to renounce Investigation Proceedings in the Articles of Incorporation or shareholder agreements is analysed in this article. The mandatory nature of the Investigation Proceedings is derived from the provisions of the Code, mainly: from an active role of the court, typical to the cases with the element of public interest, from specific rules for protecting the public interest in the course of the Investigation (...) Proceedings, also taking into account statutory duties of managers, the scope of which may not be narrowed by SHA, and the fact, that the Investigation Proceedings is generally designated to be an instrument to safeguard the interests of minority shareholders against the abuse of their rights by the company, and, finally, acknowledging the extraordinary nature of remedies available in the Investigation Proceedings. (shrink)