Meeting of representatives of top courts of Baltic states to take place in Tartu

TALLINN - The Supreme Court of Estonia will host representatives of the top courts of Latvia and Lithuania in the southern university town of Tartu from Wednesday to Friday.

The meeting is a traditional tripartite meeting, where best practices will be shared, spokespeople for the Supreme Court said.

Justices of the Supreme Court, together with their Latvian and Lithuanian counterparts, will discuss recent legal issues, many of which have a pan-European and broader international dimension, be it the prevention of money laundering, the use of electronic communications data in proceedings or problems related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Villu Kove, chief justice of the Supreme Court, said that the issue concerning the courts of all three Baltic states is the continuation of justice in crisis conditions.

"At the beginning of this year, it seemed that the pandemic was receding and the courts could quietly return to their day-to-day problems, but already in February, it became clear that a new and completely different crisis plan was needed -- how to run the courts during a war," he said.

"Against the background of these crises, Estonian courts are facing a generational change, which means that we must pay more and more attention to finding new judges and ensuring the quality of legal education," Kove added.

Peeter Jerofejev, member of the Civil Law Chamber of the Supreme Court, will make a presentation on court decisions concerning the prevention of money laundering, which primarily concern the rights and obligations of banks in the treatment of customers suspected of money laundering. He will also talk about the problems associated with identifying the authors of anonymous comments that are defamatory and cause reputational damage.

Saale Laos, chair of the Criminal Law Chamber, will give an overview of the frequently asked legal questions in the decisions of the chamber in recent years, including the right to self-defense and the assessment of the reliability of witness statements.

In addition, her presentation will discuss the impact of modern problems on criminal proceedings, such as guaranteeing the rights of the accused in criminal proceedings during a pandemic and the use of electronic communications data as evidence.