Strategic litigation is an essential tool for achieving lasting legal change and shaping legal practice that benefits not only individuals, but also wider society. While the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is a powerful tool to protect the rights of individuals in Lithuania, its potential as a tool for strategic litigation has not yet been fully exploited in Lithuania. Many legal practitioners and judges, as well as representatives of civil society organisations, still lack sufficient knowledge and understanding of the Charter’s potential, and as a result, it often remains on the margins of strategic litigation at present.
Application of the Charter in litigation in Lithuania
The period 2020-2024 was chosen as a representative period for the study, including important milestones of legal and social change. It covered a wide range of cases related to human rights, privacy and data protection, reflecting both global and regional issues such as the global COVID pandemic and the migration crisis.
The study analysed 1,071 cases where the Charter was invoked. In contrast, 415,484 cases were dealt with through the legal route over the whole period, which shows that the Charter was applied in only 0.26% of all cases dealt with in the period 2020-2024.
Of the 1,071 cases, the parties to the proceedings referred to the Charter in 397 cases, or 37% of all cases analysed. It is noteworthy that of these 397 cases, in 323 cases (81%), the courts did not comment on the application of the Charter and did not refer to it in the recitals. This may mean that judges are either not sufficiently convinced of the relevance of the Charter’s application, or do not have enough knowledge of how to apply it in their judgments, or that the parties are not relying on the Charter properly.
During the study, a number of topics stood out as the ones that generated the most cases: migration, spelling of names, family law issues, criminal liability, data protection, social assistance, and the media.
Perspectives on the application of the Charter in strategic litigation in Lithuania
Looking at the research data on the application of the Charter in Lithuania over the period 2020-2024, it can be seen that, although the Charter is used in a wide range of legal cases, its application remains relatively limited, especially in strategic litigation. For example, in the areas of migration, the spelling of names or data protection, the Charter has been applied in only a small percentage of
cases, even though the enforcement of human rights in these areas is crucial, and the relevance of these topics has been increasing rapidly in recent years. This shows not only the actual lack of application of the Charter, but also the great potential for its wider use for strategic purposes.
Strategic litigation could be an essential tool to ensure not only more frequent and consistent application of the Charter, but also to develop a legal practice that is geared towards lasting change.
You can find out more about the studio here.
Photo: Pexels I Abby Chung
