The Multi-Stage Adoption of the 1992 Lithuanian Constitution in Comparative Perspective and Some Constitutional Paradoxes

Abstract

This article is the first attempt to analyse the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania of 1992 from the perspective of the comparative concept of multi-stage constitution-making. The article consists of three parts: the first two explain, why the 1992 Lithuanian Constitution is not only a result of the 1989–1992 political and legal events in the country, but also bears some conceptual similarities in the latter legal steps with those of 1918–1922. From a comparative perspective, we can see that the multi-stage constitution-making in Lithuania (as well as other Baltic states) in the late 1980s and beginning of 1990s differs from some countries in the region of Central Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland and Hungary), because it includes the concept of continuity with the inter-war republics and does not include the phenomenon of “round tables” between the Communist party and so-called new People’s Front movements. The third difference is that the new constitutions were adopted in Lithuania and Estonia (and re-adopted in Latvia) at the beginning of 1990s, i.e., during the so-called “constitutional moment”, while in Poland and Hungary this happened a bit later. The last chapter of the article shows some constitutional paradoxes of constitution-making, namely: the paradox concerning the legitimacy of the authority having the power to adopt a constituent act; the paradox of mutual inter-dependence between the constituent authority and the constituent act, adopted by this authority; the so-called paradox of “illegality of law” of the constituent act (including the constitution adoption process) and the paradox of retrospectivity of the constituent act.