Aurelijus Gutauskas and Tomas Davulis, Professors at the Faculty of Law, Appointed as Judges of the Constitutional Court

Today, two lecturers at the Faculty of Law of Vilnius University (VU), Prof. Tomas Davulis and Prof. Aurelijus Gutauskas, were appointed as Judges of the Constitutional Court by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.

Aurelijus Gutauskas is a judge of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and, since 2017, the Chairperson of the Criminal Division. Since 2017, he has been teaching at Vilnius University, having a title of a professor. He is a member of the Council of the Faculty of Law. Previously, he worked at the Law Institute, as the Head of the Criminal Justice Research Unit, and as an advisor to the Office of the Seimas Committee on Legal Affairs.

Since 2005, he has been an expert of the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education and the Lithuanian branch of the non-governmental organisation Transparency International. As well, he is a national expert to the Secretariat of the Council of Europe on money laundering and corruption, and the Chairperson of the Judicial Ethics and Discipline Commission.

Prof. Aurelijus Gutauskas is also an expert of the International Organization for Migration, a member of the Public Council of International Experts and the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA).

Tomas Davulis is a lawyer, a scholar in labour law, who has been working at Vilnius University since 1998, serving as the Vice-Dean and as the Dean (from 2012 to 2022) of the Faculty of Law. Currently he holds a position of a professor at the Department of Private Law of the Faculty of Law, a member of the Board of the Lithuanian Lawyers' Association, and the Chairman of the European Law Association of Lithuania. Davulis was involved in the drafting of the Labour Code, the Law on Labour Councils, the Law on European Works Councils, and the Law on Guarantees for Posted Workers, as well as their amendments. He is regularly invited to evaluate amendments to the Constitution submitted by committees of the Seimas, and has provided opinions and suggestions as a researcher at the VU Faculty of Law.

Prof. Tomas Davulis is also a member of the International Society for Labour Law and Social Security, the Vice-Chairperson of the Lithuanian Society for Labour Law and Social Security, a member of the European Commission's Network of Independent Experts on the Implementation of Equality between Men and Women in Employment and Labour, a member of the Bar Examination Commission for Lithuanian Lawyers, a member of the European Commission's Network of Independent Experts on the Implementation of Employment Directives in the Fields of Labour and Social Protection, a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Commission. He has served as the Chairperson of the Lithuanian Lawyers' Society for three years, the Chairperson of the European Law Association of Lithuania since 2012, and a member of the Commission of the International Law Doctorate Network since 2014.

The Constitutional Court is made up of 9 judges, appointed for nine years and one term only. The Court is renewed by one third every three years. Three candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court shall be appointed by the Seimas from among the candidates proposed by the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the Seimas and the Chairperson of the Supreme Court. The decision on appointing the judges is made by the Seimas. Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, the Speaker of the Seimas, proposed to the Seimas to appoint Aurelijus Gutauskas as a judge of the Constitutional Court for nine years, while the President of the Republic, Gitanas Nausėda, nominated Tomas Davulis.

The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania stipulates that citizens of the Republic of Lithuania of impeccable repute, having a higher legal education and at least 10 years of legal or scientific pedagogical work in the legal profession, may be appointed as judges of the Constitutional Court.