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This article examines the need for codification of the legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania regulating construction. It is noted that the current legislation does not ensure stability and efficiency of the construction process. The construction process is subject to excessive procedural and bureaucratic requirements, and contradictions between the norms of legal acts of different levels can be found. Therefore, the issue of legislative reform is increasingly being raised in the market. Construction law has not been extensively studied in the Lithuanian legal literature so far. Therefore, we consider it necessary to analyze the legal regulation of construction and to review the need for reform on the basis of the good practice of foreign countries. This article discusses the fundamental principles and values that the regulation of construction legal relations must ensure. It assesses how the current legislation ensures the implementation of these principles. The article sets out the challenges for codification, the implementation of which would help to make the legal framework more coherent and clearer, more responsive to developments and reduce financial, human and time costs. It also identifies and analyses the most common challenges to construction regulation in different regions of the European Union. After summarizing the main objectives of the legal framework, three codification alternatives are presented, with different scope and structure of the Code. The analysis presented in the paper is based on an assessment of the functioning of the current legal system and an analysis of best practices in foreign countries. The article is based on the positions of legal scholars and practitioners expressed during scientific and practical conferences (international and national). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-two EU member states, including Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, oblige some lay participation (lay judges/jury) in the administration of justice. However, the models of this institute differ among countries. Based on the analysis of lay participation models in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, this article aims to point out and describe their advantages and disadvantages. To achieve this aim, qualitative research was carried out. The methods employed for data collection included thematic analysis and document selection. Document content analysis (i.e., the analysis of research papers, scientific literature on the topic, the Constitutions of Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, and other international and national legislation) was applied for data processing, and the methods of a dogmatic and comparative analysis were employed for data analysis. The findings of the research disclose that lay judges and jurors are ordinary citizens who work together with legal judges to decide several different types of criminal cases in the Danish and Swedish district and regional courts. Meanwhile, Sweden also has this institute in civil and administrative cases. Finland has only lay judges in criminal cases. This article is divided into four sections: the first section discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the Danish model; the second outlines the Swedish model; and the third describes the Finnish model. The last section compares these models and provides a discussion on the issue. Finally, the article provides conclusions based on the analysis of scientific sources and documents, and the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual leave is granted to employees in order for them to rest and regain their efficiency at work. Article 49 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania provides that every employed individual has the right to paid annual leave. For this right to be implemented, the employee should be paid for this period of leave. On 1 July 2017, the new Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania came into effect. It not specified, how this right to annual leave should be implemented, but also provided for a new legal term - "leave pay" (lith. atostoginiai). This paper seeks to assess the peculiarities of payment for the annual leave after the reform of Lithuanian labor law taking into account the case law. It analyses component parts of leave pay, the rules of granting, prolonging and transferring of leave, as well as possibility of reimbursement for unused annual leave. This research was conducted using the usual methods for this type of research: systemic and document analysis, linguistic, logical and comparative. The paper takes into account the case law of the European Court of Justice interpreting the provisions of the Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction of the institute of individual constitutional complaint in the Lithuanian legal system, an additional opportunity arose for individuals to defend violated constitutional rights or freedoms, disputing the constitutionality of the legal regulation of criminal proceedings. Analyzing the practice of individual constitutional complaints regarding the constitutionality of the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter – CCP) formed by the Constitutional Court, various reasons for their non-acceptance become apparent. Complaints are usually rejected on the grounds that the petitioners misinterpret the disputed legal regulation, raise the issue of its application rather than constitutionality, or associate the violation of their constitutional rights or freedoms with decisions that are not adopted on the basis of the disputed legal regulation or are not final. This article focuses on the requirement to use all the means of protection of one’s constitutional rights or freedoms established by law before applying to the Constitutional Court. Taking into account that, according to the CCP, certain decisions of a court or pre-trial investigation judge are final and not subject to appeal, this paper seeks to establish whether they are considered as such in the context of constitutional disputes. Although a person is not required to exercise the possibility of reopening a criminal case before filing an individual constitutional complaint, in certain cases decisions adopted in accordance with the legal regulation regulating it must be considered final within the meaning of Law on the Constitutional Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the gaps in national law in preventing repetitive violence and adopting a general strategy for the prevention of violence against women. The national legislation of the Republic of Lithuania is evaluated in relation to international law in the area of gender-based and domestic violence. Notably, Lithuania is a party to the corresponding international documents in this area. However, the national legislation at the level of laws and regulations lacks links with international law and relevant documents. The basic preventive measures are very broad and are not targeted at the elimination of violence against women; instead, they seek to decrease the numbers of crimes in the area of domestic violence. The most relevant sectors for prevention, i.e. the health care sector and the education sector, are not involved. The objectives of prevention are not placed within the gender equality paradigm, and violence against women is not seen as being connected with stereotypes and discrimination. In addition, gaps are identified in the prevention of repeated violence against women. The paper suggests that the system of protective orders should be reformed so that protective orders are available to all victims of violence and not limited to domestic violence victims. Both civil and criminal protection measures should exist, and they should be applicable to post-trial victims as well. It is also recommended that the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which is the most thorough document on prevention, be ratified. Ratification would improve the weakest point in Lithuanian legislation on violence against women - the prevention of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to reveal the main features of the right to aca- demic freedom by analyzing theoretical aspects of this concept, some moments of its historical development, related case law, and the Turkish case. The first chapter considers the relationship between the right to academic freedom and the other human rights, its structure, and its place in legal acts. Then, the paper reveals the practical issues regard- ing the right to academic freedom, taking into account the most significant legal inter- pretations of the concept of academic freedom in the form of legal judgments from U.S. and European courts. More precisely, the case law of the U.S. Supreme Court, European Court of Human Rights, and European Court of Justice is relevant in understanding how both sides of Atlantic Ocean understand the right to academic freedom. The third chapter considers the state of academic freedom in the Republic of Turkey. The case of Bogazici University is considered in an attempt to reveal the restrictive conditions of academic freedom in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the issues of the need and opportunities for informal (thoughtful, reasonable, creative) application of the criminal law. The problem is closely related to the legal discussion on the limits of discretion of the judge in the interpretation and application of laws. The author expresses the opinion that despite the fact that the influence of legal positivism on criminal justice is stronger than on civil one, but even in a criminal case the judge does not have to be completely restrained by the letter of law. The paper justifies the need for an informal application of the criminal law, discusses the legal doctrines that allow it to do so. Beyond doubt, the compliance with the letter of law is a desirable standard in criminal justice. Nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege (no crime and punishment without law) principle is a fundamental basis of criminal law, which protects citizens from arbitrary prosecution and brings clarity to what is a crime in society and what legal consequences are foreseen to the offender. However, the need for informal application of the criminal law actually exists. The main objective reason for informal justice is eternal incompleteness of law, limited opportunities of written rules, diversity of life, which never fits into dry definitions. Even the criminal law always risks falling behind changing realities, not to respond in time to changes, misunderstand them, create uncertainty and conflicts of values. The subjective reason for informal application of criminal law is surplus, clarity and consistency strapped legislation, which often produces irrational, abstract and limitless definitions of particular crimes. These definitions later become the means to formulate excess criminal charges for minor infringements and artificially criminalize relations regulated by other branches of law (tax, administrative, civil, etc.). So, the need of informal application of the criminal law is primarily related with the need to avoid artificial criminalization and absurd criminal convictions. The author distinguishes the following working legal instruments allowing informally apply the criminal law: 1) expansive and narrowing interpretation of criminal law; 2) the concept of dangerousness of criminal act; 3) the general legal principle of proportionality and the principle of criminal law as a last resort (lat. ultima ratio); 4) the maxim of human rights protection. The paper illustrates the effectiveness of these concepts with concrete examples of court practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most notably, compatibility of public and private interests is apart of a sustainable civil and legal society. However, it is still a controversial issue, especially in the unique regulation of bank insolvency proceedings. On the one hand, in the modern legal scientific field it is argued that the state cannot protect only certain social groups or only certain specific interests of individuals. But on the other hand, the question arises whether only the interests of the individual are important to the state, or are there some exceptional collective, general public interests? Bank insolvency cases (e.g., bank "Snoras" and bank "Ūkio bankas") subsequently have undergone dramatic changes in Lithuanian law system and it is still a very sensitive social issue. This paper tries to achieve analysis of the interference between the private and public interests which affect in the bank liquidation proceedings. The article considers under the private law a few resonance issues caused by public and private interaction and their consistency under the Lithuanian legal framework of bank liquidation proceedings. The basic object of the paper is the compatibility of private and public interests in bank liquidation proceedings under the Lithuanian law. The research problem is as follows: does the regulation in Lithuania proper balancing public and private interests under bank liquidation proceedings? While the definition of bank liquidation has never been provided in the scientific field of Lithuania, this paper inter alia suggests a term of bank liquidation. With the purpose to explore the actual meaning of legal norms and legislations as well as content and to analyze the literature, the systematic and document analyses, synthesis, comparative, critical thought methods were used. The statements are derived from analyses of scientific literature, relevant legislation, the practice of the courts and relevant reports. The paper is written from the perspective of the Lithuanian law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the right to choose law applicable to individual employment contracts under Regulation Rome I that replaced the 1980 Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations is discussed. The short evolution of the European choice-of-law rules for employment contracts and principle of parties' autonomy is revealed. The Regulation Rome I implementation practices as well as expression of such choice and cases of limitations are analysed in the paper, as well. The following questions that arise from provisions on the law applicable to the employment contracts and a wide scope of application of Rome I Regulation are discussed: 1) Do the parties to the employment contract may choose applicable law of any State?; 2) Is it necessary to have a connection between the contract and the State whose law the parties have chosen to apply?; 3) Is there a need of foreign element in the relationship when choosing other State's law and should it be seen as a foreign element in terms of the Rome I Regulation?; 4) Is the choice of the parties limited to only State law or may it include non-state provisions as well? Practical situations arising from the abovementioned questions are presented in the paper, too. After analysing individual national laws, case law and doctrine, two types of the interpretation of the principle of autonomy are presented: 1) the first type (which is used in Lithuania and many other European countries), where the parties are completely free and may choose the applicable law, irrespective of the fact that contractual relationship is related to only one state and the fact that the state whose law is chosen by the parties, has no connection with the employment contract; and 2) the second type (which is used in Poland, Germany), where the parties may exercise the freedom of choice of the contractual relationship only when there is an objective connection with the state which law is chosen. Finally, some states provide that the parties may choose only law of a particular state. However, it is stressed that parties to an employment contract are free to agree on any law to the extent that the agreement improves upon the mandatory minimum standard of protection set by the objectively applicable law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. Recently, the banking industry has faced considerable challenges in Lithuania. Two banksfaced insolvency almost in a year's time. These cases subsequently have undergone dramatic changes in society, which now has a new legal viewpoint. Resolution and the bail-out of failing banks have an impact on the perceived credit risk as well as the financial soundness and the solvency of banks. Besides, they lead to many legal issues, which should be investigated at a scientific level. Regarding bank insolvency proceedings, essentially there are two options: direct liquidation (bank bankruptcy) or bank resolution (different legal techniques of restructuring). The main objective of bank restructuring is to restore individual banks or their solvency, merge, sell, or recapitalize banks, recover assets, operations and procedures. On the other hand, the main objectives of bank liquidation are to reduce creditors 'losses and to eliminate insolvent banks from the market under the regular insolvency procedures. The main objective of the paper is to analyze bank resolution methods from the perspective of Lithuanian law. Bank insolvency law is not analyzed and investigated essentially in the Lithuania's scientific field. Two issues are analyzed in this paper: legal options and legal mechanisms of bank resolution and, on top of that, effects of implementing bank resolution tools. Resolution tools are interconnected with recent Lithuanian bank insolvency cases and based on their practice. The main aim of the article is to analyze, investigate and expose bank resolution techniques according to the Lithuanian law system. The statements are derived from analyses of scientific literature, relevant legislation, practice of the courts and relevant reports. The paper is written from the perspective of Lithuanian law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses upon cognitive-psychological phenomena leading judge's decision making. According to general law presumptions, the judge tries the case in the most possible objective and rational way, considering all necessary data and law and in this way providing the only best decision. During the last four decades, psychological studies have given a good basis to cast these presumptions in doubt. It has been shown that the judge often takes his decisions using not exact, but intuitive decision algorithms (heuristics) and uses only a part of all data that would have been indispensable for a really perfect decision. Especially important is demonstration of a hidden way, in which such intuitive decision algorithms work. Such an algorithm functions without any control of consciousness and acts in a spontaneous way. his makes them a channel for judge's uncontrolled subjectivity and brings diversity of judge's decisions in identical cases. The paper reviews the main stages of the trial and discusses intuitive decision algorithms used on each of them. heir impact on judge's decisions is discussed, as well. The principal intuitive decision algorithms used by judges have been discussed. he most important ones, most often and deeply affecting judge's decisions are conformation bias, availability and anchoring algorithms. The impact of the use of these algorithms upon decisions of judges is demonstrated. he main consequences of the use of discussed intuitive decision algorithms are diversity of the ways and outcomes in decisions of different judges in identical situations. he analysis of psychological experiments carried out in different countries has shown that the effect of this factor on judging is considerable, which violates one of the most important legal principles -- principle of uniformity, demanding similar decisions in similar cases. Especially, an important discovery is the dependence of the relative frequency of the use of intuitive algorithms on different psychological states of the judge's mind, especially his mood. Based upon related publications, it is shown that the methods should be sought that could support judges in making more objective decisions and preventing them from any unwanted impact of heuristics algorithms. The obstacles and problems in arranging such a support are discussed in the paper. The most important of this seems to be the unconscious functioning of the intuitive algorithms -- their impact is often of covered nature and any judge's attempt to realize them meets problems. This explains failure of attempts to support judges by simple information on intuitive algorithms and their impact upon judge's decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the status of attorneyship as one of the state-controlled legal professions. It should be noted that although the public recognizes the importance of lawyer's assistance, in the cultural context lawyer is one of the most ridiculed and criticized legal professions. Such assessment of attorneyship depends on the controversial nature of this legal profession, i.e. first, the lawyer uses his profession to earn income for himself, his family and his business; second, the lawyer is obliged to unconditionally pursue his client's interests to a widest extent possible; and third, the lawyer is one of those participating in the justice implementation and, as a result, is the subject to higher standards of behaviour, normally associated with both formal legal requirements and ethical requirements. The lawyer's personal interest is mostly in line with his commitment to act exclusively for the benefit of the client, because protection of the client's interests determines the lawyer's reputation and income. However, obligations of the lawyer, as the justice implementation participant, often force the lawyer to act otherwise than they would normally act in order to benefit their client. At this date, the controversial nature of attorneyship in Lithuania has yet not reached the level of doctrinal debate; therefore, it is difficult to assess what theoretical models could be considered appropriate when solving this problem. Such divergence leads to the demand that attorneyship would be controlled by external means. The general external control over attorneyship may be exercised by both lawyers' professional association (the judicial control over attorneyship in a particular case is not addressed in this article). The paper provides points proving that attorneyship is Lithuania's least state-controlled profession as compared to other similar professions, e.g. bailiff or notary. The Lithuanian Bar Association bears the primary responsibility for lawyers' ethical performance. After assessing the published data on the Lithuanian Bar Association activities, it can be stated that the control provided is insufficient, often identifying and responding to formal violations, such as non-payment of contributions and failure to submit the public liability insurance policy. There is no evidence that the Lithuanian Bar Association has a clear position concerning the lawyers' ethics and expresses it in such a way that no lawyer could question assessment of behaviour non-compliant with ethical principles. Even more questions arise in the light of the latest trends. The Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania asked the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling in determining whether in certain cases the lawyer, providing legal services to an individual, should be recognized as a business person, his client as a consumer, and the legal aid contract as a consumer contract. At the same time, a legal prerequisite for the lawyer advertising has been created in Lithuania, which had been strictly prohibited until recently. There are grounds for believing that the lawyer will be viewed more as a business person than as a person involved in the justice implementation process. As a result, the extent of ethical requirements to the lawyer may change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the relevant issue of the relationship of international law and European Union law. Therefore, independent systems of law exist, which inevitably arise the issue of relationship and interaction of these systems. Legal literature analyses the question of the relationship of these two systems of law on the basis of various aspects. The author has chosen the following structure of the paper: first, the general problem of the relationship of international and European Union law is discussed. While describing the problem, the nature of the European Union and international law, as well as the distinguishing features of these systems of law, is analysed. The paper also provides a discussion about the decisions of the Strasbourg court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, which provide the basis of solving the problem of the relationship of these systems of law. In the second part of this paper, the main theories are analysed: the monistic, dualistic and coordination theories, which can be used to answer the issue of interaction of the two systems of law -- international law and European Union law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the need of freedom is definite, the concept of individual freedom, while being interpreted with legal terms, causes not only theoretical, but also practical problems. The observed two extremes of freedom are defined as any human self-expression as well as the license, where the state power is generally attributed to disregard personal freedom. In this article the freedom of expression and state enforcement jurisdiction dichotomy are addressed by discussing positive and negative conceptions of freedom and the relationship between the interpretations of political liberalism and Kant and Hegel's philosophies. This paper aims to prove that the positive liberty is the assumption of the negative liberty. The paper based on Hegel's philosophy shows that freedom is the characteristic of human nature to seek identity. It is also argued that human identity can take many forms and, therefore, a person has a number of inherent rights and liberties. It is human psycho-physical identity that provides the right to life and health care; human creative identity, providing the right to privacy and freedom of occupation; human moral identity, which provides the right of dignity, and the moral autonomy of person's social and political identity, providing the political and social rights and freedoms. This article concludes that while a person uses the given rights with integrity and the state is limiting people's arbitrariness, there is no conflict between the freedom and state violation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the problem of criminal liability for unlawful engagement in economic activities, analyses the emergence and development of this norm in criminal law and the ways of its optimal explanation. Special attention is paid to the problem of identification of illegality of activities, based on specific tax and economic regulation. The study concludes that criminal liability must be limited to a violation of fundamental requirements for the legality of business, and does not include particular abuses occurring in legal business. The author also deals with the criteria of delimitation of criminal and administrative liability for unlawful engagement in economic activities. Under Article 202(1) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania, application of criminal liability is limited by two alternative conditions: either a person illegally undertakes activity in entrepreneurial way or on a large scale. According to the paper, the above-mentioned regulation lacks clarity and leads to the risk of unfounded prosecutions. The author gives practical examples, where on the basis of inexplicable criterion of an entrepreneurial way, criminal charges are filed in respect of petty economic activities. Such practice is incompatible with the purposes and principles of criminal law. The paper proposes to delete the criterion of an entrepreneurial way from the definition, leaving the possibility of criminal liability only in case of large scale illegal economic activity. The article also substantiates the conclusion that prohibited business activities provided for in Article 202(2) of the Criminal Code actually defies logical explanation and should be removed from the regulation. At the end of the article, the author offers a sample of optimal legal wording of unlawful engagement in economic activities in criminal law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article was prepared on the basis of a paper presented at the scientific conference The Challenges of Changing Society in Criminal Justice, organised by the Mykolas Romeris Law School, Institute of Criminal Law and Process. Commercial secrets are one of the most common ways of protecting, inter alia, both intellectual property objects and commercially valuable information. The moment of commencement of the protection of trade secrets does not relate to the intervention of the authorities or registration. In contrast to patents, the legal regime for trade secrets is more business-aware, de facto requiring no greater requirement than the value of such information to protect trade secrets. Inter alia, these circumstances have led to the widespread use of trade secrets. Trade secrets are governed by the rules of various branches of law: civil (inter alia, labor), administrative and criminal law. Such wide regulation can only be properly applied with a clear distinction between the different types of liability. Unfortunately, Articles 210 and 211 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania are abstract and repeating terms used in other legal acts without qualitatively significant criteria for delimitation. The inadequate legal technique in the area of trade secret protection has resulted in the situation what the application of criminal liability is more dependent on the will of law enforcement officers to qualification like crime or not. Wherefore, it means of criminal law are accordingly superfluous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the concept of a family member in criminal cases of violence in a close environment. The main objective of the analysis was to determine the scope of this concept as applied in national case law, while determining the qualifying element of a crime against human life and health (Chapters XVII and XVIII of the Penal Code). The subject-matter of the research was limited to the most problematic aspects as follows: 1) de facto partnership; 2) spouses; 3) former close relationship; 4) and some other relationship. Sixty decisions of national courts were used for the analysis to determine whether consistent case law for interpreting the concept of a family member ad hoc is adequate for the effective application of this concept, and whether adjustments pertaining to its legal regulation are also necessary. The results of the research lead to the conclusion that interpretation of the concept by making references to Art. 248.2 of the Penal Code (Chapter XXXIV), or Art. 38 of the Criminal Procedure Code, or definitions provided in the Civil Code or special Law on Protection Against Violence in a Close Environment is not consistent with the principle nullum crimen sine lege stricta. Therefore, in order to ensure the appropriate protection of victims of crime and adequate qualification of crimes, it is necessary to include the definition of the family member in Chapters XVII and XVIII of the Penal Code. In the case of actual partnership and spouses living separately, the Lithuanian courts essentially adequately interpret the concept of the family, applying it consistently to both de facto and de jure relations. However, according to the provisions of international law, the jurisprudence of the ECtHR, the doctrine of domestic violence, the attributes of family relationships should be valued using their broad concept and should not be confused with the manifestations of lifestyle or specificity of domestic violence. Based on the nature of marital legal relations, the provisions of the Penal Code and international normative acts, the doctrine of domestic violence and the case law of the Constitutional Court and ECtHR, marriage should be seen as ipso jure substantiating the family relationship. In the cases concerning former close relationships, the courts follow the precedents interpreting the concept of a family member, although these criteria are not fully adequate in this case. Given the specifics of domestic violence and the fact that, even if the actual relationship is broken, certain legal family relationships still remain, and the concept of the family should apply to former spouses or partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the framework of national legal regulation on the assessment of victims of violence in close environment to identify specific protection needs. The main objective of the analysis was to assess the adequacy of compliance with the constitutional requirements and standards of the Victims' Rights Directive. The provisions of this Directive have been transposed into national law by amending the Criminal Procedure Code and adopting a new post-legislative legal act by the prosecutor general (hereinafter - Recommendations). The form of the implementation of the Directive is in principle an adequate technique of transposition. But some provisions of the Recommendations differ from the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code or restrict them. This casts doubt on whether the requirements of constitutional legality are met. To avoid this, it is recommended to harmonize the provisions of the Recommendations with the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code as regards the ground and terms to benefit from the special protection measures and definitions used. The results of the comparative analysis suggest that some aspects of national regulation in this field are not in full conformity with the requirements of the Directive, specifically, the recommendatory nature of the provisions, an exhaustive list of assessment criteria and special protection measures for children, an undefined benefit of some measures during trial proceedings or later stages and the performance of individual assessment using other procedures, unsufficient attention to victims of violence in close environment, victims' active participation in the procedure, flexibility options. It is therefore recommended to harmonize these provisions with the standards of Directive and supplement them. Victims of violence in close environment tend to experience a high rate of secondary and repeat victimisation, intimidation and retaliation, and there should be a strong presumption that these victims will benefit from special protection measures. Child victims are also considered vulnerable a priori. Consequently, as far as these victims are concerned it is appropriate to perform only the second stage of two-step process of assessment and determine specific protection measures to meet individual needs. The flexibility of the procedure, differentiation of the assessment, categorization of vulnerability is also to be considered in the case of other types of criminal acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the example of the Republic of Lithuania to analyse issues relating to the recognition of states under international law. The first problem faced by the international legal doctrine is that there is no unified concept of states' recognition. The second problem is that criteria on states' recognition are not settled. The first recognition as a real sovereign entity had great significance both for the first and second recognition of the state of Lithuania. The actions of the European Union in formulating criteria for the recognition of states must be praised, and it is suggested that all EU member states should use these criteria. The significance of state recognition is an issue for open discussion. According to the doctrine of international law, two main theories are commonly used to explain the significance of such recognition: constitutive theory and declaratory theory. In the author's opinion, both of these theories fail to reflect the real significance of state recognition in the 21st century. These issues are analysed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The children who are the participants of the criminal proceedings, i.e., persons under the age of 18, regarding their insufficient physical, mental, social and cognitive maturity do not only stand out by a greater need for protection from the injurious proceedings but also by the particular specificity related to the procedure of the evaluation of evidences adduced by children. Therefore, the paper analyses the case law of the Supreme Court of Lithuania related to the evaluation of evidences adduced by children. In compliance with the case law the evidences adduced by children are evaluated by formal and substantive aspects. The formal aspect related to the evaluation of evidences adduced by children deals with the fact whether the evidences adduced by children have been collected legally - neither infringing the requirements listed in the criminal procedure law of the Republic of Lithuania nor restricting the suspected (accused) person's right for a proper defence as well as impartial criminal proceedings. Having analysed the case law, the conclusion is to be drawn that in the courts there are lower requirements regarding the reliability aspect which are to be met by children rather than by adults. The contradictions present in the evidences adduced by children are justified because of the peculiarities related to the children's age as well as experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of this article is to examine issues common to legal systems and doctrine, where concurrence between breach of contract and delict is recognised, to identify certain general trends and to make some general conclusions. A number of approaches have evolved in doctrine and different legal systems for determing whether between parties to a contract a delictual action is available as an alternative or cumulatively to a contractual action. There are the following competing legal categories: Gesetzeskonkurrenz, which means, that one rule excludes the application of the other by operation of law. According to Anspruchskonkurrenz (concurring claims) the distinct bases can be relied on by the claimant and are not seen as affecting each other. Anspruchsnormenkonkurrenz (concurring claim norms) describes a theoretical variation where it is taken that only one claim exists although the particular claim may be supported through consideration of more than one basis. This paper tries to achieve analysis of the possible solution of the concurrence in Lithuania. Although it is declared in Lithuanian legal doctrine and practise that concurrence between contractual and delictual liability in Lithuania is not available, analysis of practise reveals that concurrence situations occur, but they are settled in legal doctrine and foreign practise not applicable way giving priority for delictual liability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crisis of legal profession in the global discourse is seen as a threedimensional problem, consisting of changing professionalism values, decline in public opinion of lawyers and lawyer dissatisfaction of profession. The paper analyzes how legal profession in Lithuania was affected by political and economical transformation processes, how professionalism is influenced by changes in the market of legal services and why psychological problems among lawyers are a very common phenomenon. The public opinion surveys show that trust in the national justice systems in Lithuania is significantly lower in comparison to the 28 EU member states average trust level. Research data also reveals that the adversarial model of lawyering is clearly dominant in Lithuania. Adversarialism primarily manifests itself by often too zealous representation of the client, benefiting of colleagues oversight, error or incompetence, legal interpretation in clients' favor, which sometimes turns into manipulation by the law. Studies also indicate that psychological problems among lawyers are very common phenomenon. Lawyers are more likely than other professions suffer from depression, addiction and psychological tension witnessing such symptoms as insomnia, loss of appetite or overeating, anxiety, social isolation and reclusion, or even paranoia, leading to abuse of alcohol and drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant number of changes in Articles of the Criminal Code of Lithuania (hereinafter - C.C.) was made in the year 2011. Some important changes were made in chapter XXXIII of the C.C., providing criminal liability for crimes and misdemeanors against the civil service and the public interest. The essence of the above mentioned changes is the objective to reconcile the rules of the C.C. with the recommendations of European Union institutions report, as well as to ensure the effectiveness of the criminal law. Though the role of development, consideration and adoption of legal norm is a very important process, but the entry into force of the Law itself does not guarantee the effectiveness and proper functioning of the rules as well as regulation of social relations. Another very important stage - legal practice - is directly related to the implementation of justice and judicial practice, the consistency and quality of the content is becoming one of the main preconditions for the effectiveness of the application to the Criminal Law. In this paper, the jurisprudence of Lithuanian courts in the field of corruption related crimes is analysed. If the dynamics of passive bribery (Article 225 of the C.C.) in comparison with active bribery (Article 227 of the C.C.) have been analysed during the last decade, it can be tracked that the number of recorded acts of active bribery has increased almost 10 times, while the number of recorded acts of passive bribery has increased about 2 times. There is no ground for a priori opinion that persons have become much more likely to bribe civil servants or persons equivalent thereto. The background for such dynamics could be changes in priorities of law enforcement institutions, etc. Such situation has inspired the overview of some problematic issues in jurisprudence of Lithuanian courts, which relates both to the practical challenges in application of criminal law (qualification of corruption-related offenses, evaluation of evidence and arguments, etc.) and the challenges of criminology (the preventive effect of reaction of state institutions to corruption, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new model of hearing of individual labour disputes and implementation of its operation in practice is discussed in the paper. After reform, which came into effect on January 1st, 2013, hearings of individual labour disputes have been delegated to the specialised quasi-judicial institutions, which are set up under the territorial divisions of the State Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Lithuania. The article examines problems arising in practice after the changes of the Labour Code. The analysis is supported with practices of State Labour Inspectorate and the Courts of the Republic of Lithuania in employment cases since January 1st, 2013. The most relevant questions, such as competences of commissions of labour disputes, problems of process of appeal and further prospects, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the history of Mykolas Romeris University periodical science journal "Jurisprudence". The principal characteristics describing "Jurisprudence" as well as the content of the journal are discussed in the article. The "Jurisprudence" of today is a modern tribune that helps the scientists of Mykolas Romeris University and other educational institutions as well as the scientists of foreign countries to present to the society the findings of various scientific works in the sphere of research of fundamental and applicable legal science. The journal has been officially granted the status of prestigious publication that embodies the acknowledgement of the publications for the authors of the articles published in the journal while claiming for the scientific degree or pedagogical title. The publications of this journal are reflected in the notorious international data bases. During the past twenty years, 132 tomes of "Jurisprudence", that overwhelms more than 2100 printer's sheets, have been published. Approximately 1900 scientific articles in Lithuanian, English, German, French, Polish and Russian have been published. The genuine popularity and the social utility of the substance published in the journal is apparent not as much from the edition of the traditional paper version of the journal as from the data, showing the numbers of users downloading the electronic version of the articles of the journal that mostly reach the four-figure numbers, sometimes extending to five or six thousand. Some attention in the article is paid to discuss the primal problematics of legal science reflected in the pages of "Jurisprudence" as well as to describe the contribution of the authors of the articles. The content of the journal allows us to ascertain the variety of publications announced, as they overwhelm practically all the classical branches of legal science. The journal analyses the conceptual matters as well as solves the specific problems dictated by practice. Most of the articles published in the journal are oriented to the primal legal problems of a particular period, raise and analyse problematical questions relevant to both science and practice as well as correspond to the novelties of legal regulation in Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]