The title of this work is: Is it legitimate to impose 100 % personal income tax? The tackled problem in this work is that as the Government creates new tax policy it also creates some uncertainty in the society because of vagueness of legal limitations to impose maximum tax burden. It creates a lot of discussion in society as people on micro economical level very vulnerable to Government's moves in changing tax policy. The actuality of this problem is that after 2008 global financial crisis the interest in society towards economical issues skyrocketed into unseen level and internet news sites were bombarded by differently economically educated people. Indeed, the changes in tax policy touches almost every person's life and there is proverbial Benjamin Franklin saying that "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes". The stability of tax policy for businesses and investors is of most importance when choosing country to invest and the acts of Government witnesses about its readiness to keep promises by creating long term stable legal business environment. In country, where is "rule of law", one thing to evaluate the Government decision to raise tax level is to question its legitimacy. Every such decision to change tax policy should be grounded in specific needs and situations. The problem is not with individual tax but with general tax level. The finding of maximum level of taxation would give more clarity to state and it's citizen relationship as such kind of vagueness is one of the most powerful "generators" of distrust towards the Government. Thus it is of fundamental importance to answer question: is it legitimate to have 100 % personal income tax? The object of this work – maximum limits of tax burden. The following tasks were set for this works: 1. To reveal the essence of tax duty. 2. To identify assumptions for existence of tax duties. 3. To identify assumptions for impossibility to exist tax duties. 4. To ground the necessity for liberal state to finance itself through tax collection. 5. To do research on historical data of heavy taxation cases. 6. To separate historical events into categories, when there were different barriers to impose maximum taxes. 7. To analyse specific legal acts of Lithuanian Republic, where the law in advance regulates some possible adverse events in the future. 5 The objective of this works is to analyse the legitimacy of unlimited raise of tax burden. As research on this question progressed, a lot of attention was devoted to revealing the essence of tax duty, the grounding of tax duty and the search for maximum tax burden limits and it's legitimacy. The objective was successfully achieved by analyzing the tax law literature, political – legal theories and theoretical and practical aspects of tax burden regulation. The research showed that the imposition of tax burden is inevitable element of society organization forms, in order to exist for such tax burden there is a need for existence both of state property and private property, the impossibility to exist for tax burden can be either in such cases when there is no private property (advocated by social anarchists) or when there is no state property (advocated by liberal anarchists) and modern liberal (modern state operating in market economy) state has both forms of property. The historical analyzes of tax policies showed, that it is common thing to raise tax burden to maximum level when there is some serious political, social, military or other kind of crisis. When there is no such crisis usually the state possibility to raise taxes is limited by famous curve of Lafevre as state cannot directly control the tax paying process and society consider heavy taxes as ungrounded and consequently opposes it. In case of serious crisis in the future the Government of Lithuania Republic can change the laws aposteriori, but already now there are some laws that apriori regulate the behaviour in possible difficult situations in the future. After the research, the conclusion can be made that the hypothesis that it is legitimate for the State to set very high level of taxation, has been confirmed with reservation, that it is applicable to situations, when there is a difficult military, political, social etc. environment.
Schools implement a lot of various programmes of socialization. Some of them are included into the content of training, some are included into the content of training, some are developed in extracurricular activities, in various clubs at school and outside it and etc. There are some programmes which are accomplished the whole year, the state programmes, the programmes which are supported by the institutions of local government, international and national programmes. The abundance of these programmes is often the challenge for the teachers, social pedagogues, because it is needed to agree about the chosen programmes and how to realize them at school. There are not any researches, how the programmes of socialization help the teachers and school to achieve the raised training purposes. In the research it is tried to find out the opinion of the social pedagogues and the teachers about the realization of the preventive programmes and the programmes of socialization and compare the opinions of the teachers and social pedagogues about the possibilities of realization of the programmes of socialization at schools. The purpose of the research: To analyse the realization of the programmes of socialization at schools of general education from the point of view of the teachers. The objectives of the research: 1. To analyse the scientific literature, which concerns the concept of socialization and the problems of the content of training. 2. To study the documents and the acts of law, regulating socialization, and observe the development of the national programmes of socialization. 3. To find out the opinion of social pedagogues and teachers about the possibilieties of realization of the programmes of socialization at the teachers and social pedagogues about the possibilities of realization of the programmes of socialization at schools. 4. To prepare recommendations of the suitability of the programmes of socialization in training certain common competences and life skills. Methods: For collection of the data was chosen half-structural method of the interview which includes ten questions, presented to the social pedagogues and teachers. In the research was found out that pedagogues understand the importance of the relation of child socialization and the role of school. The teachers approve of the integration of the programmes of socialization into the content of training and informal training. It is suggested to ensure the concord of the integration of the programmes of socialization into formal and informal training. It is important to know, choosing the programme of socialization, which programme school is going to realize. Respondents know a lot of preventive programmes, in which schools take part, however, they state, that the programmes are realized by separate teachers, the realized preventive programmes are lack of integrity and consistency. Implanted in Lithuania OLWEUS programme of prevention violence and bullying is considered as an example of the lasting programme of socialization. The opinions concurred with the statement that it is the most effective preventive programme nowadays. Both groups of respondents support the lasting programmes of socialization, which could last the year or more. It is suggested to include the lacking programmes of training social skills, the preventive programmes of using drugs and other harmful substances and the summer programmes of entertaining children. For successful realization of the programmes of socialization the institutions of the national level should ensure integration of the programmes of socialization into the concord of formal and informal training, to provide for financing of the specific programmes, to induce the institutions, creating similar programmes, to forsee integration of the new programmes into the entire process of training, to create the methods of the programme realization, to finance the training of the teachers. The institutions of local administration, where the programmes of socialization will be realized, should get additional financing which can be assigned for realization of the children entertaining summer programmes and training social skills and etc. Every school, which decided to take part in the programme of socialization, schould carry out n investigation for the purpose to establish the actual school problems, the opinion of parents, students and teachers, to show, which certain programme is suitable for realization at school. School administration must actively take part in realization of the programme, motivate teachers, coordinate the works of the team. The teachers, realizing the lasting programme of socialization, should work in teams, share their experience.
Schools implement a lot of various programmes of socialization. Some of them are included into the content of training, some are included into the content of training, some are developed in extracurricular activities, in various clubs at school and outside it and etc. There are some programmes which are accomplished the whole year, the state programmes, the programmes which are supported by the institutions of local government, international and national programmes. The abundance of these programmes is often the challenge for the teachers, social pedagogues, because it is needed to agree about the chosen programmes and how to realize them at school. There are not any researches, how the programmes of socialization help the teachers and school to achieve the raised training purposes. In the research it is tried to find out the opinion of the social pedagogues and the teachers about the realization of the preventive programmes and the programmes of socialization and compare the opinions of the teachers and social pedagogues about the possibilities of realization of the programmes of socialization at schools. The purpose of the research: To analyse the realization of the programmes of socialization at schools of general education from the point of view of the teachers. The objectives of the research: 1. To analyse the scientific literature, which concerns the concept of socialization and the problems of the content of training. 2. To study the documents and the acts of law, regulating socialization, and observe the development of the national programmes of socialization. 3. To find out the opinion of social pedagogues and teachers about the possibilieties of realization of the programmes of socialization at the teachers and social pedagogues about the possibilities of realization of the programmes of socialization at schools. 4. To prepare recommendations of the suitability of the programmes of socialization in training certain common competences and life skills. Methods: For collection of the data was chosen half-structural method of the interview which includes ten questions, presented to the social pedagogues and teachers. In the research was found out that pedagogues understand the importance of the relation of child socialization and the role of school. The teachers approve of the integration of the programmes of socialization into the content of training and informal training. It is suggested to ensure the concord of the integration of the programmes of socialization into formal and informal training. It is important to know, choosing the programme of socialization, which programme school is going to realize. Respondents know a lot of preventive programmes, in which schools take part, however, they state, that the programmes are realized by separate teachers, the realized preventive programmes are lack of integrity and consistency. Implanted in Lithuania OLWEUS programme of prevention violence and bullying is considered as an example of the lasting programme of socialization. The opinions concurred with the statement that it is the most effective preventive programme nowadays. Both groups of respondents support the lasting programmes of socialization, which could last the year or more. It is suggested to include the lacking programmes of training social skills, the preventive programmes of using drugs and other harmful substances and the summer programmes of entertaining children. For successful realization of the programmes of socialization the institutions of the national level should ensure integration of the programmes of socialization into the concord of formal and informal training, to provide for financing of the specific programmes, to induce the institutions, creating similar programmes, to forsee integration of the new programmes into the entire process of training, to create the methods of the programme realization, to finance the training of the teachers. The institutions of local administration, where the programmes of socialization will be realized, should get additional financing which can be assigned for realization of the children entertaining summer programmes and training social skills and etc. Every school, which decided to take part in the programme of socialization, schould carry out n investigation for the purpose to establish the actual school problems, the opinion of parents, students and teachers, to show, which certain programme is suitable for realization at school. School administration must actively take part in realization of the programme, motivate teachers, coordinate the works of the team. The teachers, realizing the lasting programme of socialization, should work in teams, share their experience.
Subject of the final master's thesis is topical, because development and functioning of the common European Union monetary policy is especially important step in European integration, opening the way for final political approach of the member states. Thus a detailed study of this sphere of the European Union politics is necessary striving to cognize possibilities and challenges of the future integration processes. The last expansion in the Euro-area happened on 1 January 2009, when the euro was introduced in Slovakia. A number of the EU member states that use the currency of the European Union increased up to sixteen. Though Estonia still hasn't reached complete integration in the EMU process, yet in May 2010 European Commission officially suggested Estonia to join the Euro-area from 1 January 2011. Objective of the research is to assess Slovakia's and Estonia's economic and legal convergence. Considering the objective of the research and set tasks, stages of development of the Economic and Monetary Union in Europe are covered in the work in theoretical aspect, advantages and disadvantages of participation in the Economic and Monetary Union are highlighted; policy of the European Central Bank and other institutions of the European Union in the process of euro-area expansion is analysed; conformity of Slovakia's and Estonia's macroeconomic indices to criteria of Maastricht convergence and harmonization of the European Union Law and national law of the mentioned countries and estimation of Slovakia's benefits being in euro-area is presented as well as Estonia's preparation to join the Economic and Monetary Union. Performed dynamic analysis of Slovakia and Estonia's inflation, government budget deficit and gross debt, long-term interest rate and national currency stability level as well as analysis of the documents of the European Union, Slovakia and Estonia has revealed that Slovakia's convergence criteria have stabilized just after joining the EU and particular attention was paid to inflation reduction process. In convergence reports of 2008 published by the European Central Bank and European Commission Slovakia satisfied economic convergence criteria at least during the short period, however price stability and fiscal development durability in the long-term perspective remained unvalued. Situation in 2009 is a matter of great concern not only because of the price increase tendencies but also through unreliable management of public finances. Situation in Estonia is a bit different; however stabilisation of convergence criteria is also noticeable after joining the EU. While Slovakia has been trying to stabilize and retain convergence criteria keeping within control limits, Estonian Government spared a lot of attention towards securing stability of public finances, and this is proved by the fact that fiscal surplus and amount of gross debt of the government sector having prevailed during the period 2003 – 2008 haven't exceeded the limit of 8 per cent of GDP. However economic crisis that broke in 2008 caused overheat of Estonian economics. Inflation became uncontrolled and reached 10,6 per cent, deficit of government sector increased, simultaneously increasing the gross debt of the government sector. Thus Estonia's convergence in the long-term perspective is estimated as nondurable through macroeconomic imbalance likely to recur in future. The most important legal standards that required harmonization in Slovakia and Estonia: regulations ignoring objective, functions, independence of the National Bank of Slovakia and the Bank of Estonia. Legal preparation is necessary for smooth introduction of the euro, providing necessary procedures of the introduction of the euro. However there are still certain demerits in the law of the Bank of Estonia related to integration of the Bank of Estonia to the European System of Central Banks with respect of issuance of banknotes and collection of statistical information. Research methodology. A comparative historical method was applied describing origin, development and conception of common monetary politics of the European Union. Analysis of literature and legal documents was applied in order to ascertain the role of the ECB and institutions of the European Union in the process of euro area expansion. A data analysis method was applied in order to establish macroeconomic problems in Slovakia and Estonia. A comparative analysis method was applied while analysing and assessing economic and legal convergence in Slovakia, Estonia and euro area. A generalization method was applied to make clear whether thorough satisfaction of economic convergence criteria and legal standards has been implemented in Estonia; assessment of Slovakia's benefit in euro area is presented, and final conclusions are drawn.
Subject of the final master's thesis is topical, because development and functioning of the common European Union monetary policy is especially important step in European integration, opening the way for final political approach of the member states. Thus a detailed study of this sphere of the European Union politics is necessary striving to cognize possibilities and challenges of the future integration processes. The last expansion in the Euro-area happened on 1 January 2009, when the euro was introduced in Slovakia. A number of the EU member states that use the currency of the European Union increased up to sixteen. Though Estonia still hasn't reached complete integration in the EMU process, yet in May 2010 European Commission officially suggested Estonia to join the Euro-area from 1 January 2011. Objective of the research is to assess Slovakia's and Estonia's economic and legal convergence. Considering the objective of the research and set tasks, stages of development of the Economic and Monetary Union in Europe are covered in the work in theoretical aspect, advantages and disadvantages of participation in the Economic and Monetary Union are highlighted; policy of the European Central Bank and other institutions of the European Union in the process of euro-area expansion is analysed; conformity of Slovakia's and Estonia's macroeconomic indices to criteria of Maastricht convergence and harmonization of the European Union Law and national law of the mentioned countries and estimation of Slovakia's benefits being in euro-area is presented as well as Estonia's preparation to join the Economic and Monetary Union. Performed dynamic analysis of Slovakia and Estonia's inflation, government budget deficit and gross debt, long-term interest rate and national currency stability level as well as analysis of the documents of the European Union, Slovakia and Estonia has revealed that Slovakia's convergence criteria have stabilized just after joining the EU and particular attention was paid to inflation reduction process. In convergence reports of 2008 published by the European Central Bank and European Commission Slovakia satisfied economic convergence criteria at least during the short period, however price stability and fiscal development durability in the long-term perspective remained unvalued. Situation in 2009 is a matter of great concern not only because of the price increase tendencies but also through unreliable management of public finances. Situation in Estonia is a bit different; however stabilisation of convergence criteria is also noticeable after joining the EU. While Slovakia has been trying to stabilize and retain convergence criteria keeping within control limits, Estonian Government spared a lot of attention towards securing stability of public finances, and this is proved by the fact that fiscal surplus and amount of gross debt of the government sector having prevailed during the period 2003 – 2008 haven't exceeded the limit of 8 per cent of GDP. However economic crisis that broke in 2008 caused overheat of Estonian economics. Inflation became uncontrolled and reached 10,6 per cent, deficit of government sector increased, simultaneously increasing the gross debt of the government sector. Thus Estonia's convergence in the long-term perspective is estimated as nondurable through macroeconomic imbalance likely to recur in future. The most important legal standards that required harmonization in Slovakia and Estonia: regulations ignoring objective, functions, independence of the National Bank of Slovakia and the Bank of Estonia. Legal preparation is necessary for smooth introduction of the euro, providing necessary procedures of the introduction of the euro. However there are still certain demerits in the law of the Bank of Estonia related to integration of the Bank of Estonia to the European System of Central Banks with respect of issuance of banknotes and collection of statistical information. Research methodology. A comparative historical method was applied describing origin, development and conception of common monetary politics of the European Union. Analysis of literature and legal documents was applied in order to ascertain the role of the ECB and institutions of the European Union in the process of euro area expansion. A data analysis method was applied in order to establish macroeconomic problems in Slovakia and Estonia. A comparative analysis method was applied while analysing and assessing economic and legal convergence in Slovakia, Estonia and euro area. A generalization method was applied to make clear whether thorough satisfaction of economic convergence criteria and legal standards has been implemented in Estonia; assessment of Slovakia's benefit in euro area is presented, and final conclusions are drawn.
Presentation of the study. Analysed issues. Relevance of the topic. The Legal regulation of gambling differs across Europe and the world. Some jurisdictions have liberal gambling regulation where operators are free to engage in the betting and gaming business, other jurisdictions enjoy a gambling monopoly. Those countries which have state gambling monopolies participate in gambling through state-owned enterprises or through private concession-based operators. The Scandinavian countries also have long standing gambling monopolies and all gambling revenues are returned back into society to finance state budgets or public projects. Having followed the consequent Nordic tradition during the interwar period, after the restoration of independence Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (with certain exceptions) chose a completely different gaming regulatory approach. These jurisdictions chose a fairly liberal and also unique gambling regulation. The Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian gambling regulators acknowledge that these countries can not be classified within any gambling legal regulatory system. Certain conceptual problems that are endemic in gaming legal regulation in Lithuania and Baltics were observed by the author while working as a legal practitioner. Since then, through becoming more and more involved in gambling legal regulation and through the observation of foreign law, the author began to think about what might constitute ideal gambling regulation guidelines, and began encouraging the students of Mykolas Romeris University to carry out investigations into ideal gambling legal regulation in their Master theses. In this way, the problem of the selection of the gambling regulatory regime most advantageous to the public came to be crystallised, later forming the axis of this thesis. Is there an ideal legal regulation for gambling at all and what form should this legal regulation take? These reasons led to a comparative legal study – in which the gambling regulatory features in Scandinavia and the Baltic states were compared. As the Scandinavian and Baltic states represent two major approaches to the regulation of the gaming market – a market monopoly (in Scandinavia) and a liberal, competition-based regulation (in Baltic states), the separate issue under investigation were the pros and cons of each of these regulatory approaches. It has to be noted that a gambling monopoly is not just a legal concept enabling the exclusive entity to organize and provide gambling services. The monopoly is also a socio-economic category, whose consequences to the market and the public can be measured. For this reason, the analysis in the thesis touched not only on the legal but also the socio-economic peculiarities of gambling regulation. State and society benefits were also under evaluation, as legally they have to offset an indisputably negative attribute of gambling – it's addictiveness. Thus, this dissertation assesses whether there is a legal basis to assert that the monopoly, based on Nordic gambling regulation traditions, is more proactive (or defective) than the free market based gambling regulations followed in the Baltic States, in terms of the legal, social and economic aspects of these two alternative gaming market regulation methods. The relevance of the study, in particular, is founded on the existing conceptual problems faced by the current Lithuanian legal regulation regarding games of chance. During the nine years of its gambling regulation practice, the Republic of Lithuania has been unable to develop an effective gambling regulatory model that could effectively combine public (society's and state's) and private (gambling operators') interests. The current situation is evidence of the fact that public interest in the gaming sector is not legally covered and protected. The current legislation neither foresees public protection against the harmful effects of gambling, nor regulates public self protection. There are no legal measures of protection in Lithuania that would allow for personal self exclusion from casinos and other gambling venues. The public interest of the government is not protected from the economic point of view. Gambling tax collection and distribution in Lithuania is not effective. Data from 2008 showed that Lithuania had the lowest aggregate gambling tax collection in the region. In contrast, the study showed that the gambling turnover in Lithuania was the largest among the Baltic countries. This shows that the gambling business does not face any real restrictions with regards to its operations. Lithuania lacks legal mechanisms to either regulate the working hours of gaming establishments, or their places of establishment. The dissertation tackles this problem by offering a concrete option - the establishment of a state gambling and lottery monopoly. Monopolistic state participation in the gambling business (the Scandinavian model) guarantees not only the state revenue collected in the form of taxes, it also makes it possible to claim for full gambling generated income (profit). The raising of state revenue is of perpetual relevance to every jurisdiction, especially in the presence of a global financial crisis. The financial difficulties currently met by the Baltic States add additional relevance to this dissertation. The relevance of the thesis is not only contingent on the solution offered to conceptual problems in the field of gambling and the increasing of public revenue. The thesis also evaluates the legitimacy of the monopoly. If sovereign jurisdictions are free to choose a gambling regulatory method, legal problems have occasion to arise when the particular method chosen does not correspond with international legal obligations. For example, article 43 of the Treaty on European Community regulates the freedom of establishment within the EC. Article 49 prohibits restrictions on the provision of services to another Member state of the Community. The infringement of the aforementioned articles is often addressed to states in which legal regulation of gambling is based on a state monopoly. The dissertation provides response to the question of whether gambling monopolies are legal. Due to the international nature of the topic of the dissertation, it is relevant not only in Lithuania, but also Latvia, Estonia and those other Scandinavian countries which are currently concerned with the dilemma of maintaining a monopoly or opening it. The last, but most important, elements which determine the permanent topicality of this paper are the legal aspects of gambling addiction prevention that are researched in the dissertation. In all Baltic States, the prevention of gambling addiction is not given adequate legal consideration. Scandinavian countries apply a number of different gambling addiction prevention measures. Public safety and public order are universal legal values towards which special attention must be paid during the process of forming gaming legal regulation. The paper reveals what legal stand is occupied by the Baltic States in comparison to those Scandinavian countries with monopoly based gambling regulation. The paper reveals how the legal basis of all three Baltic jurisdictions can be improved in the context of gambling addiction prevention. In this respect, the paper is also relevant. The objective and tasks of the study The dissertation is comprised of a comparative legal study, whose purpose is to compare monopolistic legal regulation and the liberal legal regulation of gambling in a specific context - Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, as well as Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian jurisdictions. This specific context – the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, has been chosen due to the fact that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia share a similar history, geopolitical situation, legal system and legal regulation of gambling, even if they are not identical. Latvia and Estonia have monopolized their lottery market, but the rest of the gaming market is liberal. The Scandinavian countries, which are all representatives of state owned gambling monopoly countries, have been chosen as they are close Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian neighbours, whilst their social protection system and social policy are perhaps the best in Europe. These are social welfare countries whose social welfare indices, according to the classification of the Nobel Prize winning economist Amarta Sen, are among the highest in the world. Therefore, the aim of the study was to reveal the effectiveness and appropriateness of gambling legal regulation in Lithuania and other Baltic states, by first comparing these countries to each other and then to Scandinavian countries which are famous for their social well-being. In order to meet the study objective the following tasks have been set: 1. To disclose the concept, nature, evolution and characteristics of the legal regulation of gambling. To disclose social costs management in the Nordic and Baltic countries. 2. To compare gaming regulatory features, including the practice of gaming regulatory institutions, liability against infringement of gambling legal regulation and gambling taxation in Nordic and Baltic countries. 3. To compare gaming safety measures applied in Nordic and Baltic countries The novelty of the study. The scientific value of the dissertation. This is the very first legal dissertation in Lithuania on gambling. The countries under investigation (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia) are also lacking any single comparative legal study on gaming regulatory issues. This is the first scientific work to analyze the pro et contra of market competition and monopoly-based gambling regulation. Only one study, which was performed by the Comparative Law Institute of Lausanne (Switzerland) under assignment of the European Commission: \"Study of Gambling Services in the Internal Market of the European Union. Final report.\" can be held as inter-related to the cur
Presentation of the study. Analysed issues. Relevance of the topic. The Legal regulation of gambling differs across Europe and the world. Some jurisdictions have liberal gambling regulation where operators are free to engage in the betting and gaming business, other jurisdictions enjoy a gambling monopoly. Those countries which have state gambling monopolies participate in gambling through state-owned enterprises or through private concession-based operators. The Scandinavian countries also have long standing gambling monopolies and all gambling revenues are returned back into society to finance state budgets or public projects. Having followed the consequent Nordic tradition during the interwar period, after the restoration of independence Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (with certain exceptions) chose a completely different gaming regulatory approach. These jurisdictions chose a fairly liberal and also unique gambling regulation. The Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian gambling regulators acknowledge that these countries can not be classified within any gambling legal regulatory system. Certain conceptual problems that are endemic in gaming legal regulation in Lithuania and Baltics were observed by the author while working as a legal practitioner. Since then, through becoming more and more involved in gambling legal regulation and through the observation of foreign law, the author began to think about what might constitute ideal gambling regulation guidelines, and began encouraging the students of Mykolas Romeris University to carry out investigations into ideal gambling legal regulation in their Master theses. In this way, the problem of the selection of the gambling regulatory regime most advantageous to the public came to be crystallised, later forming the axis of this thesis. Is there an ideal legal regulation for gambling at all and what form should this legal regulation take? These reasons led to a comparative legal study – in which the gambling regulatory features in Scandinavia and the Baltic states were compared. As the Scandinavian and Baltic states represent two major approaches to the regulation of the gaming market – a market monopoly (in Scandinavia) and a liberal, competition-based regulation (in Baltic states), the separate issue under investigation were the pros and cons of each of these regulatory approaches. It has to be noted that a gambling monopoly is not just a legal concept enabling the exclusive entity to organize and provide gambling services. The monopoly is also a socio-economic category, whose consequences to the market and the public can be measured. For this reason, the analysis in the thesis touched not only on the legal but also the socio-economic peculiarities of gambling regulation. State and society benefits were also under evaluation, as legally they have to offset an indisputably negative attribute of gambling – it's addictiveness. Thus, this dissertation assesses whether there is a legal basis to assert that the monopoly, based on Nordic gambling regulation traditions, is more proactive (or defective) than the free market based gambling regulations followed in the Baltic States, in terms of the legal, social and economic aspects of these two alternative gaming market regulation methods. The relevance of the study, in particular, is founded on the existing conceptual problems faced by the current Lithuanian legal regulation regarding games of chance. During the nine years of its gambling regulation practice, the Republic of Lithuania has been unable to develop an effective gambling regulatory model that could effectively combine public (society's and state's) and private (gambling operators') interests. The current situation is evidence of the fact that public interest in the gaming sector is not legally covered and protected. The current legislation neither foresees public protection against the harmful effects of gambling, nor regulates public self protection. There are no legal measures of protection in Lithuania that would allow for personal self exclusion from casinos and other gambling venues. The public interest of the government is not protected from the economic point of view. Gambling tax collection and distribution in Lithuania is not effective. Data from 2008 showed that Lithuania had the lowest aggregate gambling tax collection in the region. In contrast, the study showed that the gambling turnover in Lithuania was the largest among the Baltic countries. This shows that the gambling business does not face any real restrictions with regards to its operations. Lithuania lacks legal mechanisms to either regulate the working hours of gaming establishments, or their places of establishment. The dissertation tackles this problem by offering a concrete option - the establishment of a state gambling and lottery monopoly. Monopolistic state participation in the gambling business (the Scandinavian model) guarantees not only the state revenue collected in the form of taxes, it also makes it possible to claim for full gambling generated income (profit). The raising of state revenue is of perpetual relevance to every jurisdiction, especially in the presence of a global financial crisis. The financial difficulties currently met by the Baltic States add additional relevance to this dissertation. The relevance of the thesis is not only contingent on the solution offered to conceptual problems in the field of gambling and the increasing of public revenue. The thesis also evaluates the legitimacy of the monopoly. If sovereign jurisdictions are free to choose a gambling regulatory method, legal problems have occasion to arise when the particular method chosen does not correspond with international legal obligations. For example, article 43 of the Treaty on European Community regulates the freedom of establishment within the EC. Article 49 prohibits restrictions on the provision of services to another Member state of the Community. The infringement of the aforementioned articles is often addressed to states in which legal regulation of gambling is based on a state monopoly. The dissertation provides response to the question of whether gambling monopolies are legal. Due to the international nature of the topic of the dissertation, it is relevant not only in Lithuania, but also Latvia, Estonia and those other Scandinavian countries which are currently concerned with the dilemma of maintaining a monopoly or opening it. The last, but most important, elements which determine the permanent topicality of this paper are the legal aspects of gambling addiction prevention that are researched in the dissertation. In all Baltic States, the prevention of gambling addiction is not given adequate legal consideration. Scandinavian countries apply a number of different gambling addiction prevention measures. Public safety and public order are universal legal values towards which special attention must be paid during the process of forming gaming legal regulation. The paper reveals what legal stand is occupied by the Baltic States in comparison to those Scandinavian countries with monopoly based gambling regulation. The paper reveals how the legal basis of all three Baltic jurisdictions can be improved in the context of gambling addiction prevention. In this respect, the paper is also relevant. The objective and tasks of the study The dissertation is comprised of a comparative legal study, whose purpose is to compare monopolistic legal regulation and the liberal legal regulation of gambling in a specific context - Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, as well as Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian jurisdictions. This specific context – the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, has been chosen due to the fact that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia share a similar history, geopolitical situation, legal system and legal regulation of gambling, even if they are not identical. Latvia and Estonia have monopolized their lottery market, but the rest of the gaming market is liberal. The Scandinavian countries, which are all representatives of state owned gambling monopoly countries, have been chosen as they are close Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian neighbours, whilst their social protection system and social policy are perhaps the best in Europe. These are social welfare countries whose social welfare indices, according to the classification of the Nobel Prize winning economist Amarta Sen, are among the highest in the world. Therefore, the aim of the study was to reveal the effectiveness and appropriateness of gambling legal regulation in Lithuania and other Baltic states, by first comparing these countries to each other and then to Scandinavian countries which are famous for their social well-being. In order to meet the study objective the following tasks have been set: 1. To disclose the concept, nature, evolution and characteristics of the legal regulation of gambling. To disclose social costs management in the Nordic and Baltic countries. 2. To compare gaming regulatory features, including the practice of gaming regulatory institutions, liability against infringement of gambling legal regulation and gambling taxation in Nordic and Baltic countries. 3. To compare gaming safety measures applied in Nordic and Baltic countries The novelty of the study. The scientific value of the dissertation. This is the very first legal dissertation in Lithuania on gambling. The countries under investigation (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia) are also lacking any single comparative legal study on gaming regulatory issues. This is the first scientific work to analyze the pro et contra of market competition and monopoly-based gambling regulation. Only one study, which was performed by the Comparative Law Institute of Lausanne (Switzerland) under assignment of the European Commission: \"Study of Gambling Services in the Internal Market of the European Union. Final report.\" can be held as inter-related to the cur
