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An open-access article titled “Can a Referendum Reverse Constitutional Meaning? Constitutional Adjudication, Family Rights and the Limits of Constitutional Amendment in Lithuania” by Dr. Dovilė Pūraitė-Andrikienė and Dr. Agnė Juškevičiūtė-Vilienė, researchers at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences (LCSS), has been published in the international academic journal “Laws”. The article examines a proposal by a group of Lithuanian parliamentarians to hold an advisory referendum concerning an amendment to Article 38 of the Constitution. The proposed amendment would link the constitutional concept of family exclusively to marriage between a man and a woman, motherhood and fatherhood.

The authors ask what limits the Constitutional Court’s interpretation of family and the protection of fundamental rights place on such an initiative. They argue that the proposed amendment would seek to reverse the understanding of family developed in the Court’s case law. The article considers the substantive limits on constitutional amendments, legal certainty, Lithuania’s obligations under the ECHR and EU law, the case law of the ECtHR and CJEU, and comparative constitutional practice. It emphasises the role of constitutional courts in safeguarding fundamental rights when constitutional change is pursued through referendums.

The full open-access article is available here: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/15/5/122

On September 17, 2026, researchers from the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences – Dr. Kristina Ambrazevičiūtė, Dr. Raimonda Bublienė, and Dr. Ingrida Mačernytė-Panomariovienė – participated in the XV European Congress of the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law (ISLSSL), held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This year, the congress participants were brought together by the event's theme and title: "Social Europe under Strain – Contemporary Challenges of National and European Labour and Social Security Laws."

Dr K. Ambrazevičiūtė presented a paper entitled “Age and Gender Non-discrimination in Labour Law: Challenges for Older Working Women in the Baltic States”, in which she discussed and compared the situation of older women in employment in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, focusing on protection against discrimination on the grounds of age and gender, possibilities for individualising working conditions, and legal protection upon termination of employment. The researcher noted that although employment rates among older women (aged 55–64) in all three countries exceed the European Union average, the nature and strength of legal measures supporting their continued participation in employment differ. The comparison also showed that the strength of the legal measures examined does not directly correspond to the employment rate of older women: stronger formal legal guarantees are established in Lithuania, while Estonia has the highest employment rate among women aged 55–64. This suggests that the continued participation of older women in the labour market is determined by a broader range of factors, with labour law regulation being only one part of the overall picture.

This presentation was prepared within the project "(Not)prolonging the Working Life of Older Women: Legal Environment, Guarantees and Intentions" (VAM), implemented by the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences and funded by the Research Council of Lithuania. For more information about this project, see https://teise.org/en/projektai/vam/

Dr. R. Bublienė and Dr. I. Mačernytė-Panomariovienė, in their presentation "Intersectional Discrimination and Equal Pay," identified economic inequality resulting from female unemployment and reduced labour income as a structural inequality in society characterized by a lack of opportunities. Women face part-time work, career breaks due to care responsibilities (maternity or other reasons), poverty-driven occupational segregation, and the glass ceiling effect more frequently than men. All of this carries long-term consequences, impacts pay transparency and labour income, and has implications for future pensions.

This presentation was prepared within the postdoctoral fellowship project "Multiple Discrimination and Labour Income: A Comparative Analysis of Legal Regulation in European Countries (MEDALIC)," implemented by the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences and funded by the Research Council of Lithuania. For more information about this project, see https://teise.org/en/projektai/medalic/

A research article by Dr Raimonda Bublienė and Dr Ingrida Mačernytė-Panomariovienė, researchers at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, and Dr Aurelija Burinskienė, Associate Professor at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, entitled “Intersectional Discrimination in Employment in the Digital Age: Sex, Age, Email Non-Use and Unemployment in the EU”, has been published in the international open-access journal “Social Sciences.”

The article uses Eurostat data for the 27 EU Member States for 2016–2025 and applies two-way fixed-effects models to examine the association between email non-use and unemployment, separately for men and women aged 25–54 and 55–74. The researchers found a positive association between higher rates of email non-use and unemployment among people aged 25–54. However, this association is not sufficiently robust: the results change substantially when country-specific linear trends are included, while additional analysis also raises concerns about the temporal ordering of the variables. The estimates for the 55–74 age group are statistically inconclusive. The authors therefore emphasise that the observed relationships should be understood as specification-sensitive conditional associations rather than causal relationships. Email non-use does not in itself measure digital skills, while the statistical data do not allow for determining whether individuals experienced discrimination or which specific factors contributed to their unemployment. The findings do not support the conclusion that reducing email non-use would reduce unemployment. The article notes that further research on intersectional discrimination should examine separately the specific barriers that may be faced by women from ethnic minorities, older women and women with disabilities, while avoiding the assumption that the experiences of all these groups are uniform.

The article was prepared as part of the postdoctoral fellowship project “Analysis of Multiple Discrimination and Labour Income: A Comparative Study of the Legal Regulation in European Countries (MEDALIC)”, implemented at the LSMC Law Institute and funded by the Research Council of Lithuania. More information about the project is available here: https://teise.org/en/projektai/medalic/.

The full article is available here.

On 9 September this year, Dr Ingrida Kerušauskaitė-Palmer, Senior Researcher at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences (LCSS), participated in the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference held at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. The ECPR General Conference is Europe’s largest annual gathering of political scientists, bringing together thousands of scholars and practitioners to present the latest research and promoting the translation of research insights into practical solutions.

At the conference, the Law Institute researcher delivered a presentation entitled “Enablers of Illicit Finance: a Conceptual Framework”, in which she presented research conducted jointly with Dr Omar McDoom, a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the article based on this research. In recent years, increasing attention has been devoted to enablers of corruption and financial crime in public discourse, policy-making, and scholarly discussions. Major exposes such as the Panama Papers, Pandora Papers, and FinCEN Files have highlighted the role that individuals and firms play in facilitating the movement of funds and the formation of companies used to hide and benefit from illicit funds.

 In the article presented at the conference, the authors developed a conceptual framework for identifying such profesional enablers of illicit finance and distinguishing them from adjacent concepts such as gatekeepers, intermediaries, facilitators, and principals. The framework identifies ten dimensions of enabling, organised into scope, constitutive, and normative categories. The new definition identifies actors who willingly or negligently allow individuals and corporations to hide, move, protect, launder, invest, or enjoy the benefits of illicitly obtained or transferred funds, resulting in economic, social, or political harm. The article concludes by linking differing enabler mental states to proportionate regulatory, supervisory, educational, exposure, and sanctioning responses.

Šiemetinio 43-iojo Tarptautinio ekonominių nusikaltimų simpoziumo tema buvo „Turto susigrąžinimas ir teisinės valstybės principas – nusikalstamos veiklos pelno atėmimas: nuo retorikos prie realių rezultatų“ (angl. „Asset Recovery and the Rule of Law - Taking the profit out of crime – from rhetoric to results“). Džiaugiamės, kad šios milžiniškos konferencijos, vykusios rugpjūčio 23–30 dienomis Kembridžo universitete ir pritraukusios per 2000 ekspertų iš viso pasaulio, rengėjų sąraše įrašytas ir Lietuvos socialinių mokslų centro (LSMC) Teisės institutas. Šiame renginyje pranešimus skaitė du Teisės instituto mokslininkai – dr. Ingrida Kerušauskaitė-Palmer ir dr. Skirmantas Bikelis. Be to, dr. I. Kerušauskaitė prisidėjo ir prie simpoziumo organizavimo. Jai talkino ir simpoziumo sekretoriate savanoriavusi LSMC Teisės instituto projektų administratorė Karolina Vysockytė.

Dr. I. Kerušauskaitė-Palmer, LSMC Teisės instituto vyresnioji mokslo darbuotoja, šiais metais koordinavo dviejų dienų alternatyviąją programą „Geopolitinė strateginė korupcija ir neteisėti finansiniai srautai“ (angl. „Geopolitical strategic corruption and illicit finance – Under the auspices of the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge and the Institute of Law, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences“). Ingrida tarė įžangos žodžius ir moderavo pirmas sesijas abi programos dienas – pristatė pagrindines sąvokas, strateginės korupcijos priemones, metodus ir apraiškas bei aptarė pagrindinius iššūkius ir klausimus, kuriuos nagrinėja akademinė literatūra, o paskutinę dieną apibendrino visą programą. Taip pat tyrėja perskaitė tris pranešimus, du iš jų – plenarinėse simpoziumo sesijose.  Pirmajame pranešime sesijoje „Ką turėtume daryti su susigrąžintais pinigais ir ką galime su jais daryti?“ (angl. „What should we do and what can we do with the money we recover?“) dr. Ingrida Kerušauskaitė-Palmer pristatė knygos skyrių, kurį parašė kartu su dr. Skirmantu Bikeliu, apie konfiskuoto turto pakartotinį panaudojimą (angl. asset reuse). Ingrida aptarė jos ir Skirmanto sukurtą modelį, kaip jie kategorizuoja atgauto turto panaudojimą socialiniams ir administraciniams tikslams. Antrajame pranešime sesijoje „Plenarinis praktinis seminaras Nr. 48 – ką tai reiškia šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje?“ (angl. Plenary Workshop 48 –  what does it mean in the modern world?") Ingrida kalbėjo apie korupciją ir socialines normas bei skirtumą tarp tapatybinio ir „vienkartinio“ korupcijos suvokimo. Paskutinę simpoziumo dieną mokslininkė skaitė pranešimą ir diskutavo apie žurnalo „International Journal of Economic Crime“ strategiją. Ingrida yra šio tarptautinio mokslinio žurnalo vyriausiojo redaktoriaus pavaduotoja.

Dr Skirmantas Bikelis presented two papers at the symposium. During the session “Non-Conviction-Based Forfeiture”, he presented “Civil (?) Confiscation in Lithuania and the EU Legal Framework,” discussing civil confiscation – a field that the researcher has been studying for many years and on which he has published numerous academic papers. In the session “What and Who Are We Missing in Our Discussions on Strategic Corruption and Illicit Finance?”, Skirmantas delivered his second presentation, “Threats as Strategic Corruption?”, addressing the concept of geopolitical (strategic) corruption.

Dr. Sarmitė Mikulionienė, Senior Researcher at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences (LCSS) and lead researcher of the VAM project, participated in the 17th Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA), “Strengthening Democracies: Social Action, Solidarity, and Sustainable Futures".

The conference was held in Warsaw, Poland, on 25-28 August 2026. Dr. Mikulionienė presented research examining the factors that influence older people’s intentions either to continue working or to leave the labour market as soon as possible, with particular attention paid to gender differences. In the session devoted to social justice and ageism at work, Dr. Mikulionienė presented a paper entitled “Determinants of Extended Working Lives: Gendered Profiles”. The presentation featured findings from the ongoing project “(Not)prolonging the working life of older women: legal environment, guarantees and intentions” (VAM).

Using microdata from the SHARE database (N = 2,745), the study examined and compared the work intentions of employees aged 55 and over in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Particularly striking contrasts were found between Estonia and Lithuania. Estonia is characterised by a “flexible” or “soft” retirement model, with as many as 84% of older workers expressing a desire to remain active in the labour market. In Lithuania, by contrast, a “hard” retirement model predominates: due to the inflexibility of the system, older workers experience what can be described as systemic fatigue, with as many as 85% expressing a desire to leave the labour market as early as possible.

Based on the SwAge methodology and decision-tree analysis, the study identified specific barriers and motivational factors that vary according to workers’ gender and level of education. The findings demonstrate that simply increasing the statutory retirement age is not sufficient to encourage older people to remain in employment.

Dr. Mikulionienė emphasises that public policy should focus on:
1.  Flexibility adapted to health conditions: moving away from rigid employment and retirement models towards solutions that can be adapted to workers’ health and individual circumstances.
2. Gender-sensitive psychosocial working environment indicators: creating working environments that take into account gender-specific priorities and the different factors that motivate older women and men to remain active in the labour market for longer.

Dr. Sarmitė Mikulionienė’s participation in the conference and the research presented were funded by the project “(Not)prolonging the working life of older women: legal environment, guarantees and intentions” (VAM, Contract No. S-MIP-24-29).

Despite cultural and legal differences, sharenting—a combination of sharing and parenting, referring to parents' tendency to document and share moments from their children's lives online—is a global phenomenon that has now entered its third decade. While widely regarded as a form of parental self-expression, sharenting also raises significant ethical and legal concerns. It may jeopardise children's right to privacy, as their images and personal information are often shared without their consent, potentially resulting in long-term consequences such as digital identity theft, cyberbullying, or the misuse of their images.

In the chapter "Balancing Public and Private: Sharenting and Child Rights in the Baltic States", published in the edited volume "Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Sharenting: Parenting, Privacy, and Consent" (Routledge, 2026), researchers Dr Kristina Ambrazevičiūtė and Dr Agnė Limantė of the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, together with Professor Merle Eriksen of the University of Tartu, examine the phenomenon of sharenting in the context of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The authors point out that none of these countries has yet adopted specific measures or developed guidelines directly addressing this practice. Against the backdrop of this regulatory gap, the chapter assesses whether the existing legal framework provides meaningful protection for children whose digital identities are constructed online before they are able to exercise autonomy over decisions concerning the disclosure of their personal information.

Based on their empirical research, the authors conclude that all three Baltic States have an adequate legal framework to address situations involving sharenting. This framework includes the constitutional right to privacy, the child's right to express their views, the definition of parental responsibilities, and the principle of the primacy of the child's best interests. The researchers therefore argue that the most effective way to address the challenges and risks associated with sharenting is not through the creation of new legal instruments, but through systematic public education and the development of practical guidelines for parents. In their view, the core problem in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia is not parental malice, but rather a lack of awareness and understanding of the potential consequences of a child's digital footprint.

The book containing the chapter by researchers from the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences and the University of Tartu is available for reading and purchase here. here

A year and a half ago, Springer, one of the world's most prestigious academic publishers, published The Crossroads of Competition Law and Energy Regulation, a monograph by Dr. Laura Rimšaitė, a researcher at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences (LCSS). In this book, the author explores how to strike a balance between fostering competitive energy markets and ensuring effective regulation. She also examines the challenges of reconciling market competition with regulatory objectives such as reliability, fairness, and sustainability.

This year, the monograph received important international recognition by being featured in Boletín de Novedades Bibliográficas, the Spanish National Commission on Markets and Competition's (CNMC) specialized bibliography of recommended publications prepared for the institution's experts, researchers, and analysts.

The CNMC is one of the European Union's leading national authorities responsible for competition enforcement and the oversight of regulated sectors, including energy. It supervises one of Europe's largest energy markets and plays an active role in addressing issues related to competition, the energy transition, market liberalization, and energy security.

The CNMC's bibliographic bulletin is not a general overview of newly published books. Rather, it is a carefully curated selection of recent international scholarly publications considered relevant to the daily work of the institution's experts. The inclusion of Dr. Rimšaitė's monograph therefore demonstrates that the issues it addresses at the intersection of competition law and energy regulation are of practical relevance not only to the academic community but also to institutions involved in shaping and implementing energy and competition policy across Europe.

The CNMC's bibliographic bulletins typically feature publications issued by leading international academic publishers and authored by established scholars from Western Europe, the United Kingdom, and North America. The inclusion of a monograph by a Lithuanian scholar may therefore be regarded as a significant indicator of international visibility and recognition, highlighting the book's potential impact on both professional practice and regulatory policymaking.

Rimšaitė, L. (2024). The Crossroads of Competition Law and Energy Regulation. Springer Cham. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-73238-6

The book can be accessed here – https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-73238-6

CNMC's bibliographic bulletin is accessed here – https://www.cnmc.es/sites/default/files/editor_contenidos/Promocion/Biblioteca/202507_Boletin_de_Novedades_Bibliograficas_N24_WEB.pdf

The Research Council of Lithuania has awarded funding under the Programme for the Implementation of Lithuanian Studies Priority Areas for 2025–2030 to the LCSS Law Institute project "Post-Soviet to European? Diverging Paths of Prison Systems and Carceral Collectivism in the Baltic States (BRIDGE)." The project will be implemented from 1 July 2026 to 30 December 2028 by Dr Rūta Vaičiūnienė (project leader), Dr Gavin Slade, Dr Arta Jalili Idrissi, and PhD candidate Goda Dainauskaitė.

Through the project, the researchers will analyse the developmental trajectories of prison systems in the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) from a contextual and comparative perspective, with particular attention to models of carceral collectivism and cell-based imprisonment, their transformations, and lived experience in everyday prison life. Following the restoration of independence, the Baltic states shared similar historical starting positions, however, over time, their reform paths diverged. The outcomes of these trajectories are reflected in international evaluations, prison infrastructure, organisational governance, and the social life of prisons. Estonia implemented a fundamental restructuring of prison infrastructure and the execution of imprisonment, Latvia has entered a new phase of modernisation, while Lithuania remains the most reliant on the carceral collectivism – a legacy of Soviet times.

The researchers will examin how different forms of imprisonment materialise in the physical and social prison environment, how they are internalised by staff and prisoners, and how they shape interpersonal relations, subculture, order maintenance, organisational functioning and institutional environment.

The project will develop and publish methodological guidelines for empirical research involving prisoners, prison staff, and policymakers. These guidelines will make a significant contribution to research on prison systems in post-Soviet countries.

The research team of the project consists of: Dr Rūta Vaičiūnienė (project leader), Dr Gavin Slade, Dr Arta Jalili Idrissi, and PhD candidate Goda Dainauskaitė.

The project is funded by the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), Contract No. S-LISm-26-19.

More information about the project here.