The Role of court and attorney in judicial conciliatio

ENAccording to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania a court is an independent State institution which administers the justice and obeys only the law. An opinion that the court shall heed that the hearing of a case is carried out according the legal norms and the decision adopted is lawful and reasonable was followed for a long while. Usually conciliation of the parties was left to the discretion of the parties themselves and the court was not under duty to undertake measures to conciliate them. Nowadays the situation has changed considerably and the role of court in conciliation of parties is being discussed increasingly both in certain countries and at international level. For example, First European Conference of Judges in the year 2003 was dedicated to early settlement of disputes and the role of judges1. It was noted in the conclusions of the conference that states and judges themselves shall not only undertake measures in order to settle the disputes as quickly and as facile as possible but also shall promote peaceful settlement of a dispute in both cases at the court and before a claim is submitted to the court. Judges shall be competent at techniques of alternative procedures for settlement of disputes.In Lithuania until the new Code of Civil Procedure came into force only a right of a very general nature to offer the court to conclude a peace treaty existed. Presently, the situation has changed and the First Paragraph of Article 159 of currently effective Code of Civil Procedure provides the duty of the chairman of a session to take conciliation measures. As Article 159 is titled "Duty of the chairman of a court session to ensure proper hearing", the duty of conciliation should be approached as a constituent part of the duty of the chairman of the court session to ensure proper hearing. This legal regulation confirms that the court these days shall be active not only while determining substantial law but also while taking conciliation measures. Accordingly, it remains to answer a question how the court shall behave and what measures should be taken that a peace settlement between the parties be concluded.