25 Years of Fundamental Rights in the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia: Development, Significance and Content

Only in 1998, the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia – Satversme, which was adopted more than a hundred years ago and is one of the oldest constitutions in Europe, was supplemented with new Chapter 8 – regulation on fundamental rights. Until the adoption of Chapter 8 of the Satversme, only a few fundamental rights could be found in the Constitution.The current article discusses the development of the regulation of fundamental rights in the Satversme, the importance of fundamental rights in a democratic state, as well as reflects the catalogue of fundamental rights. The authors, looking at the catalogue of fundamental rights included in the Satversme, analyse the fundamental rights by dividing them in groups, i.e., civil, political, social, economic, cultural and solidarity rights. The publication outlines the most characteristic features of each group of rights, reveals the content of those rights and also provides the recent case law of the Constitutional Court.