Riga Justice Leaders Forum 2022

The first Riga Justice Leaders Forum “Responsibility and Innovations in the Time of Change” took place in Riga, Latvia on July 14.

Under the chairmanship of Jānis Bordāns, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, the forum was held in Riga, where justice leaders from several countries discussed how to ensure development of the justice sector in today’s versatile and challenging environment. Special attention was paid to leadership, innovations and investigation of Russian war crimes.

We are proud to share that Ellex partner in Latvia Daiga Zivtiņa was invited to participate in the session “Critical factors for successful change.” The speakers were invited to speak on management of justice institutions and accessibility of justice services: challenges, best practices, and stories of success as well as critical factors for successful change were discussed.

Daiga Zivtiņa represented the Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia (FICIL) as a member of its Investment protection and court efficiency work group. She outlined the importance of continued court system digitalisation efforts, explaining that the ”digital transformation is one of the key priorities of FICIL, and it includes better access to courts and strengthening of digital capabilities of courts. During the pandemic our practice, experience and attitude have changed significantly. Modernisation as a routine today can lead to innovation, which correlate with development in the technology sector.”

Daiga also mentioned that while we are currently translating existing procedures into digital procedures, we need more cooperation among legal community, business community and technology sector to find an improved way to achieve the progress in dispute resolution. We are looking at speed, simplicity, understanding and predictability of the court system.

This panel was led by Anda Smiltēna (Deputy State Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Latvia). Other speakers included Felix Steffek (Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge), Daniela Piana (Professor of Political Science at the University of Bologna), Chloe Lelievre (Head of Justice Unit, OECD) and Kaspars Kauliņš (International Business Development Director at Tilde).

Full recoding of the event is accessible here.