Heads of Nordic, Baltic supreme courts meet in Helsinki

TALLINN - The heads of the supreme courts of the Nordic and Baltic countries, including Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Estonia Villu Kõve, met in Helsinki at the end of last week.

The meeting, organized by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland, provided an overview of the judicial systems in the Nordic and Baltic countries and their latest developments.

In general, the number of civil cases in courts has fallen, while administrative cases have increased. In Lithuania and Latvia, the number of criminal cases has also decreased.

This April, a reform came into force in Finland that gives lower-instance courts the opportunity to request binding preliminary rulings on legal questions from the Supreme Court. One such question has already been answered.

In Denmark, leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is decided by a separate, independent board. This board includes representatives from judges of all three court instances. The Supreme Court justice serving on the board has a two-year term and is exempt from other duties during this period. Additionally, the minister of justice appoints one lawyer and one law professor to the board.

In Finland and Sweden, the supreme courts handle a very small portion of appeals -- about 6 percent in Finland and only about 1 percent in Sweden. In Estonia, however, this figure was nearly 12 percent last year.

In Sweden, leave to appeal can also be granted for part of a case or only for a few specific legal questions.

In Lithuania, a computer program distributes cases among judges, taking into account factors such as workload and specialization.

In Finland, Sweden and Norway, the members of the supreme court are generalists, meaning they all handle both civil and criminal cases; in Norway, they also handle administrative cases.

Denmark, Norway and Iceland do not have separate administrative courts, while other countries in the group do. Iceland uses specialist lay judges, such as an engineer in a dispute over building defects. The president of the Supreme Court of Iceland is elected by the judges themselves for a five-year term. In Finland, the president holds the position until retirement, meaning the term is essentially indefinite.

In the Nordic countries, judicial advisers are often junior or probationary judges, and their scope of authority is broader than in Estonia.

In Sweden, two active judges -- one from the Supreme Court and one from the Supreme Administrative Court -- and two retired judges are permanent members of the so-called legislative council. The council approves draft legislation and, in a sense, functions as a constitutional court. The judges serving on the council are exempt from their other judicial duties.

In Sweden, the Supreme Court in 2021 convicted and sentenced the president of a lower court for failing to adequately supervise a judge who delayed cases and for failing to take sufficient disciplinary action. It was recommended that Sweden also include other court staff, besides judges, as members of its judicial administration council. Sweden plans to amend its constitution to increase judicial independence, including in matters of the number of judges and their retirement age.

In Latvia and Lithuania, granting the judicial administration independence from the Ministry of Justice led to budget problems, as the ministry was no longer responsible for funding the courts.

In Sweden, taking photographs and filming in court is prohibited, and therefore, hearings cannot be broadcast.