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On 24 September, HE Mr Egīls Levits, the President of the Republic of Latvia, Latvia’s declaration recognising as compulsory the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice () . This declaration makes Latvia the seventy-fourth State to deposit a declaration recognizing the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice () as compulsory.

The process of recognition of the jurisdiction of the Court by Latvia commenced in 2017, when the Council of Independent Experts in International and European Law with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia () was asked to draft an opinion on the Declaration. Dr Martins Paparinskis, Reader in Public International Law at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Laws, is a member of the Council since 2012. He was the rapporteur (lead drafter) of the opinion, which served as the basis for the ‘On the recognition of jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice’ and the ‘On the Declaration recognizing jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice as compulsory’. On most points, the Declaration follows the language suggested in the 2017 Council’s opinion.