Bridging Between an Effective Economy and Environmental Protection Under the Lithuanian Constitution

Abstract

In 1992, the Lithuanian Constitution created the preconditions for the stable and successful economic development of the state and laid down foundations for regulating economic relationships that ensure the predictability of economic, social, and legal relationships. The article analyzes how the concept of social justice as chosen by the drafters of the Constitution influences Lithuanian economic policy, as well as what foundations are consolidated in the Constitution for the economic system and freedom of individual economic activity. A brief study is presented in order to reveal the patterns of regulation of the Lithuanian economy in constitutional law, as well as the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court in relation to freedom of individual economic activity over the thirty years that the Constitution has been in force. Study of this jurisprudence shows that, in the first decade of restored Lithuanian independence, freedom of economic activity was particularly encouraged by the Constitutional Court, with the aim of creating the foundations for a market economy as soon as possible. Later, the main aim of the state was to ensure Lithuania’s energy independence, while in the third decade of independence constitutional jurisprudence increasingly analyzed the possibilities of finding a balance between environmental protection requirements and economic freedom. The second part of the article examines the constitutional foundations for environmental protection and the constitutional doctrine interpreting them; it is maintained that environmental protection can, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, be recognized as an important public interest, which may justify restrictions on freedom of individual economic activity; however, these restrictions must guarantee a balance between the two constitutional values of environmental protection and freedom of individual economic activity.