News

Consistency of judicial practice: in Helsinki, the President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania highlighted the shared responsibility of the Baltic and Nordic states to uphold the common European legal space

On 24–25 September, the President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, Skirgailė Žalimienė, took part in the meeting of the Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the Nordic and Baltic States, held in Helsinki, Finland. During the event, she delivered a presentation on the challenges related to ensuring consistency in judicial practice and on the measures taken to strengthen public trust in the justice system.

According to the President, societies in both the Baltic and Nordic countries expect justice to be predictable and require that similar cases should not lead to different outcomes.

“Whether we come from the Nordic or Baltic States, we all face the same expectations from our societies: justice must be predictable, and similar cases should not result in different decisions,” she said.

She emphasised that this duty of consistency was not only a national obligation but also a European one, as the Court of Justice of the European Union is mandated to ensure the uniform interpretation and application of EU law. For Lithuanian courts, as for other smaller jurisdictions, this task posed particularly significant challenges. In response, various measures had been introduced in recent years: the model procedure, bulletins summarising developing legal rules and the factual context of specific cases, and, in certain situations, the referral of cases for examination by extended panels.

The President noted that consistency in judicial practice was not a final product but an ongoing process requiring a careful balance between stability and flexibility.

“Consistency in case-law is never a finished result — it is always a continuous effort, a responsible balance between stability and flexibility,” she observed.

According to Ms Žalimienė, such international forums offered an opportunity for courts to learn from one another and to strengthen not only their national judicial systems but also the wider European legal space. Shared practice, she stressed, did not imply uniformity but rather the building of trust between cases, courts, and states.