Feb. 18th, 2021, Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) PhD student Kristina Kenstavičienė successfully defended her PhD dissertation, "Constitutional Institute of State Defense: Development and Problems of Legal Regulation." Her PhD supervisor was MRU Law Prof. Vytautas Sinkevičius.
Dissertation Defense Council:
Chairman – Prof. Dr. Toma Birmontienė (Mykolas Romeris University, Law, S 001).
Members:
Prof. Dr. Eglė Bilevičiūtė (Mykolas Romeris University, Law, S 001);
Prof. Dr. Gediminas Mesonis (Mykolas Romeris University, Law, S 001);
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anita Rodina (University of Latvia, Republic of Latvia, Law, S 001);
Prof. Dr. Alvydas Šakočius (General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania (MAL), Law, S 001).
This PhD dissertation analysed the constitutional institute of state defense and related legal regulation to reveal the problems of legal regulation. Problems of legal regulation, regarding state defence, analyzed in the dissertation are linked by a fundamental question: what is the content of the rules forming the constitutional institute of national defense, which define the subjects of state defence and the measures of national defence assigned to them by the Constitution, that determines the ordinary legal regulation of national defence? With regard to the aforementioned fundamental problem, the dissertation aims, in particular, to analyse the concept of national defence in the broad and narrow sense. It also examines the constitutional basis for the use of the armed forces as the military means of national defence and what state authorities take decisions on issues of national defence. The issues include, first of all, the armed defence of the State, imposition of martial law or announcement of mobilisation. In addition, how they share this authority among themselves is examined. Further, how the democratic principle of civilian control over servicemen and paramilitary state institutions determines the distribution of responsibility for national defence between civilian and military national defence institutions is closely examined. The constitutional grounds for the universal obligation to do military service and the problems of constitutionality of some provisions of the Law on National Conscription in connection with exemption from the obligation to do military service and postponement of military service is looked at. There are suggestions on how to solve them. Finally, the dissertation examines the constitutional content of the right to resist as one of the national defence measures.