THE ACCESSIBILITY OF THE CASSATION COURT AND ITS ROLE TO PROVIDE FAIRNESS. THE CASSATION COURT PROCEDURE IN THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA, PROBLEMATIC ISSUES, AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA

Kristine Neimane, Mg.iur. Phd Candidate /"Turiba" University

According to the Civil procedure law of the Republic of Latvia, it is set forth by Part 10, Chapter 56 the cassation procedure and submission of the cassation complaint. If a person (litigant) consider that the judgment of the Court of Appeal has applied incorrectly the substantive norms and/or its interpretation has been made incorrectly, as well as if litigant considers that the Cour of Appeal breached the procedural regulations which may have an influence to examining of the case and final judgment, a person has rights to submit the cassation complaint. According to the author’s point of view, the procedure as it presently set forth by the Civil procedure law of submission and acceptance of the cassation complaint is more than disputable. The reasons and explanations of these considerations the author will give in this article and provide details from Civil procedure law parts that describe the disharmony between itself. The disputable aspects will be emphasized to draw attention to the general tendencies of the future development of the cassation proceedings. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia has accepted several constitutional complaints related to the submission/acceptation/refusal procedure prescribed by the law for cassation complaint and this article analyzes the conclusions of the Constitutional Court. The author considers that society’s general belief is that the judgments of the Cassation court are the final instance of possible fairness, but the meanings of the legislator and the court regarding fairness could be explained differently.
Key words : civil procedure, fair trial rights, fairness, cassation court role, Constitutional court.