Legislation

On 18 September, 2012 the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania adopted a new Law on the Basics of Legislation (No. XI-2220) establishing the principles and stages of legislation, rights and obligations of state and municipal institutions and other persons involved in the process of legislation.

• The law requires that all persons involved in the process of legislation must be guided by the following principles: appropriateness, proportionality and respect for rights and freedoms of an individual, openness and transparency, effectiveness, clarity and systematization (Sec. 2 of Art. 3). 

• Starting from 1 March 2013 legal acts listed in section 2 of Article 6 (which includes the acts of applying the law – decisions, resolutions and rulings of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, the Supreme Court of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court) shall be registered and officially published in the Register of Legal Acts (Sec. 1 of Art. 19), which shall be owned and managed by the Office of the Lithuanian Parliament (Sec. 5 of Art. 6). Thus after this Law becomes effective the official text of most legal acts shall be available for access free of charge at a public electronic Register of Legal Acts (Sec. 4 Art. 6), whereas currently legal acts are officially published only in the Official Gazette (in Lithuanian: „Valstybės žinios“). 

• The Law establishes the right of all individuals to submit proposals for legislative initiatives and legislative projects, as well as on the current legal regulation that is being monitored (Sec. 4 Art. 5). Any person can also submit a proposal on a project of legal act that has already been drafted and published at the Informational System of Legal Acts, and each person drafting the project of a legislative act must assess such proposals (Sec. 5 of Art. 9). 

• The Law provides that all legal acts, except for laws and other legal acts due to be signed by the President, can be signed with a secure electronic signature at the Informational System of Legal Acts.

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