Country report, gender equality : how are EU rules transposed into national law? : Latvia 2016

Latvia is a parliamentary State, where Parliament is the only legislator. This legislator, however, has the right to delegate legislative functions to the Cabinet of Ministers and to municipalities. Delegated legislative powers always have to be made explicit in the laws adopted by Parliament. In case of delegated legislative competence, the Cabinet of Ministers adopts the regulations for the Cabinet of Ministers, and municipalities adopt binding regulations for the municipalities. All documents mentioned have their own place in the hierarchy: the laws adopted by Parliament are followed by the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers and the latter are of a higher level than the binding regulations adopted by the municipalities. All issues concerning EU gender equality law are regulated predominantly by legislation, and in exceptional situations by the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, and never by the regulations adopted by the municipalities. The court system in Latvia is as follows: There are three courts levels: city (district) courts (first instance), regional courts (second instance for appeal) and the Supreme Court (the third instance for cassation). There are two types of courts: administrative (dealing with relations between private persons and the state executive power) and regular (dealing with criminal or civil cases). There is a Constitutional Court (Satversmes tiesa) which supervises if the legal norms correspond to the Constitution. Private parties have the right to lodge a constitutional complaint if they believe that the legal norms do not correspond to the human rights as provided by the Constitution.