Year: 2004
Financed by:  The Soros Foundation-Latvia; Open Society Institute Justice Initiative Program; JI; Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative; LGI
The study has been prepared as part of PROVIDUS Public Policy Fellowship Program
Language:  Latvian

As a result of central and local government unlawful decisions or actions, individuals experience financial or material loss, as well as personal and moral grief. The purpose of this study is to:  identify under what circumstances are individuals entitled to recovery of damages; what is the legal mechanism and basis for such recovery; how it can be practically applied; and what the amount of recovery should be.

The study concluded that the Administrative Process Law provides for a more effective, economic and recipient friendly system of recovery of damages, although no legal mechanism to implement it exists and for this reason, it is virtually impossible to receive compensation from the State in practice.

A sizable amount of attention was placed on the limits of recovery, based on the experience of other countries as well as taking into account the Council of Europe’s and European Court of Human Rights decisions.  The study concluded that limits can be set, but that they must be based on clearly defined criteria.

The study also concluded that, in contradiction to the Council of Europe’s recommendations, the guarantee of an individual’s right to financial recovery of damages stipulated in the Administrative Process law is mute because no resources have been allocated within the budget for this purpose.

 Governmental Liability and its Variations. Recovery of Damages in the Administrative Process (in Latvian) (403.96 KB)