President of Latvia congratulated Judge Cielava and stressed: ‘The fact that this ceremony is taking place today in the Riga Castle shows that Latvia keeps going despite extraordinary circumstances. Moreover, what is important is that you are giving your judicial oath only one hour after appointment of Aigars Strupišs to the position of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by the parliament. Judges belong to a special profession. The oath given by a judge describes everything a judge needs to be aware of. Oath talks about truth, honesty, fairness, accountability and legitimacy. If we take a careful look at the oath, we see very clear and direct instructions that judges must follow. Truth is your goal. You must establish truth. Honesty must be both internal and external – towards yourself and towards society and parties to the case. Whereas the quality of a judgement is measured by how fair it is. Fairness is the standard that everyone must aspire and strive to ensure in every judgement. So good luck in your new position and may you make a lot of fair and honest judgements that establish the true facts of a case’.
President of Latvia also congratulated Judge Troika and pointed out: ‘Professional work of a judge can be divided into two phases of varying length. The first phase is where you try to establish missing information and find a solution. Stage in which a judge follows a certain approach to make a judgement. However, more often than not a judge must start all over again several times to be able to find the appropriate solution that is fair, as the oath that you give requires. This is a critical phase that requires judges to scrupulously reflect and analyse what they do. It is followed by the second phase. Stage in which judge uses legal concepts to ‘build a wall’ around a judgement to make it ‘watertight’ so that it cannot be contested. Once a judge has successfully transition through both of these phases, a solid judgement is available. Something that judges continuously aspire to. Honourable Justice, I wish you to make all your judgements as solid as possible. Good luck’.
President of Latvia Egils Levits and Minister for Justice Jānis Bordāns swore in each of judges separately in an official yet ‘closed’ ceremony. To comply with emergency measures and government restrictions, but also meet all the requirements of the Law “On Judicial Power” regarding the legitimacy of the oath, some deviations from the established procedure had to be made. For example, the presentation of insignia. Instead of following the tradition and putting it on the judge, President of Latvia presented the insignia and asked both judges to put it on themselves.
