Signe Rätsep
Chief Specialist of the Legal Information and Judicial Training Department of the Supreme Court

 

Statistics on the work of the Supreme Court are collected based on requests for proceedings and matters reviewed. Data on matters reviewed and requests for proceedings are collected in three types of court proceedings: civil court, administrative court and offence proceedings. In constitutional review proceedings, data are gathered regarding the matters reviewed. Requests for proceedings are considered to include appeals in cassation, appeals against court rulings, applications for review, and applications for procedural aid. Statistics on matters reviewed are kept according to the matters.[1]

Review of requests for proceedings in the chambers of the Supreme Court

Figure 1. Review of requests for proceedings in the Supreme Court, 2017–2021.

By law, the Supreme Court is empowered to decide whether or not to process requests for proceedings for ensuring the lawfulness of decisions made by a lower court, harmonization of judicial practice or further development of procedural law.

In 2021, a total of 12% (267 of 2143 requests) were processed for acceptance or rejection for proceedings. The respective figures were 13% in 2020 (298 of 2208), 13% in 2019 (313 of 2389), 14% in 2018 (316 of 2309) and 13% in 2017 (367 of 2728).

Figure 2. Review of requests for proceedings by type of proceeding, 2021.
Figure 3. The chambers’[2] performance to review requests for proceedings, 2017‒2021.

The Civil Chamber had 1281 requests for proceedings (1287 in 2020), of which 1032 were submitted in 2021. The chamber reviewed 1008 requests (1040 in 2020). A decision on acceptance or rejection of the request was made in the case of 835 requests (881 in 2020), and of these 114 (122 in 2020) were accepted.

Figure 4. Review of requests for proceedings in the Civil Chamber.

In 2021, the Administrative Law Chamber had 750 requests for proceedings (736 in 2020), and of these 631 requests for proceedings were submitted in 2021. The Administrative Law Chamber adjudicated 630 requests (615 in 2020), and a decision on acceptance or rejection of the request was made in the case of 589 requests (578 in 2020), of which 72 (75 in 2020) were accepted.

Figure 5. Review of requests for proceedings in the Administrative Law Chamber.

In 2021, the Criminal Chamber had 1171 requests for proceedings (1147 in 2020), and of these 1022 requests for proceedings were submitted in 2021. The chamber reviewed 1058 requests (996 in 2020). A decision on acceptance or rejection of the request was made in the case of 719 requests (749 in 2020), and of these 81 (101 in 2020) were accepted.

Figure 6. Review of requests for proceedings in the Criminal Chamber.

Results of review of matters in the chambers of the Supreme Court

Constitutional review proceedings

Local elections took place in Estonia in 2021, so it is unsurprising that the total number of matters reviewed by the Constitutional Review Chamber was large. A total of 33 matters were reviewed under constitutional review proceedings in the Supreme Court in 2021. On one occasion, the Supreme Court en banc ruled on a constitutional review matter. Of the matters reviewed in the Constitutional Review Chamber and the Supreme Court en banc, a provision in the challenged legal act was deemed unconstitutional and repealed in six cases. Twenty requests were denied and 10 requests were rejected without review. Table 1 provides the detailed results of matters heard under constitutional review proceedings.

Table 1. Results of matters heard under constitutional review proceedings in 2021

Review of matters in the Criminal, Administative Law and Civil Chambers

The Criminal Chamber ruled on 62 proceedings on offences, 49 of them criminal and 13 misdemeanour. The Civil Chamber ruled on 103 matters. The Administrative Law Chamber ruled on 78 matters.

Figure 7. Review of matters in the Criminal Chamber, Administrative Law Chamber and Civil Chamber in 2021.
Figure 8. Performance of the chambers in reviewing cases decided on in principal review, 2017–2021.

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[1] Detailed data on the review of requests for proceedings and matters by the Supreme Court since 1993 can be found on the Supreme Court website, https://www.riigikohus.ee/et/riigikohus/statistika.

[2] Performance – ratio of the number of requests reviewed during the year to the number of requests received in the same period.