The Constitutional Court has evaluated the provisions of the debt obligation law against Articles 1 and 105 of the Constitution

Latvijas Vēstnesis in the issue of October 2, 2026, No. 190 (official reference OP 2026/190), in the constitutional institutions section “Constitutional Court”, published a judgment of the Constitutional Court, registered in the publication under sequence number 20. It evaluated the compliance of specific provisions of the Law on the Discharge of Debts of a Natural Person with the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia. Publication in the official gazette means that the court has examined the case and reached a decision that is binding and publishable in a generally accessible official state publication.

Which provisions of the law were evaluated

The contested provisions in the Constitutional Court’s judgment are specified precisely:

• Point 2 of the first part of Article 4 of the Law on the Discharge of Debts of a Natural Person;
• Point 5 of the first part of Article 4 of the Law on the Discharge of Debts of a Natural Person;
• Point 2 of the first part of Article 5 of the Law on the Discharge of Debts of a Natural Person;
• Part 2.1 of Article 5 of the Law on the Discharge of Debts of a Natural Person.

Against which provisions of the Constitution

The scale of the court’s evaluation consisted of two constitutional norms:

• Article 1 of the Constitution, which stipulates that Latvia is an independent democratic republic;
• The first three sentences of Article 105 of the Constitution, which guarantee property rights and specify the conditions for the permissibility of their restriction.

Both norms are among the most frequently applied in the practice of the Constitutional Court, as they simultaneously define the foundations of the state structure and the financial guarantees of private individuals.

Context: insolvency regulation in the same week

The court’s judgment was published in a week when the government was actively refining the rules of the insolvency process. On October 1, 2026, in Latvijas Vēstnesis No. 189, amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers regulations regarding the insolvency process of a natural person were published, including:

• Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 587 on the deposit payment and disbursement in the insolvency process of a natural person;
• Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 588 on the case management of the insolvency process administrator and the person supervising the legal protection process;
• Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 589 on the activity report of the insolvency process administrator;
• Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 591 on the satisfaction of claims of employees of an insolvent employer and the payment of the administrator’s remuneration;
• Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 595 on the monetary funds to be deposited if the debtor’s property that served as collateral has been sold in the insolvency process;
• Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 596 – Regulations of the Electronic Insolvency Accounting System.

Court practice in constitutional review

During this period, the Constitutional Court has also published other rulings affecting the rights of private individuals. On September 29, 2026, in Latvijas Vēstnesis No. 187, a judgment was published regarding the compliance of Paragraph 4 of Article 6 of the Psychologists Law with the first sentence of Article 106 of the Constitution, while in the September 10, 2026 issue No. 174, a Constitutional Court decision was published – a decision of the hearing session in case No. 2024-01-01.

What this means for readers

The judgment is significant for anyone who has fallen into debt and views the discharge of debt obligations as a way out of insolvency. The court’s assessment of Article 1 and the first three sentences of Article 105 of the Constitution defines the boundaries of how far the legislator may restrict a debtor’s ability to be released from obligations and manage their own property. The decision simultaneously affects the interests of creditors, as it specifies in which cases the state may intervene in private law relationships between a debtor and a creditor.

Official source

• Publication: Latvijas Vēstnesis, October 2, 2026, No. 190, official reference OP 2026/190.
• Institution: Constitutional Court.
• Document type: Judgment of the Constitutional Court, sequence No. 20.
• Legal act: Law on the Discharge of Debt Obligations of a Natural Person.
• Assessed Constitutional norms: Article 1 and the first three sentences of Article 105.
• Public reference: https://www.vestnesis.lv/url/16991?content=1