Apkaltos teisinis reguliavimas: teoriniai ir praktiniai aspektai ; The law regulation of impeachment: the theoretical and practical dimensions

Abstract

This master thesis concentrates on impeachment procedures as it is a form of constitutional liability of highest state officials in Lithuania. There is a number of aspects of the impeachment procedure that are analysed in this paper: a violation of a law as a ground for applying constitutional liability, elements of impeachment procedure and the evolution of them through the years since Constitution of Lithuania was adopted in 1992, the questions concerning legal consequences of impeachment. In this paper it is analysed both the constitutional concept of impeachment and it's regulation in ordinary law and also the problems and questions that arose in practice when the legal norms regulating imeachment have been applied. Part of the research concentrates on whether the regulation in ordinary law is always compatible with the constitutional provisions and also what steps legislative had to make to make sure that Statute of Seimas or other acts are in accordance with Constitution. As European Court of Human Rights declared in it's verdict of the case Paksas v. Lithuania that Lithuania violated Article 3 of Protocol 1 of European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by establishing unconditional and permanent prohibition to participate in parliamentary elections for a person guilty of breach of oath and thus removed from office, the proposals made to amend the Lithuanian legal system are also investigated.