CYIL vol. 12 (2021)

Birutė Pranevičienė – Violeta Vasiliauskienė – Harald Scheu CYIL 12 (2021) be in groups of no more than 2 persons, except for close relatives, adoptive parents, adopted children and guardians, and caregivers, to maintain safe contact (more than 2 meters and less than 15 minutes), to avoid direct physical contact, and comply with personal hygiene requirements. The movement of persons to other municipalities was restricted during the Easter period and also in Nemencine – a city where a COVID-19 outbreak had occurred – for a certain period of time the inhabitants of this municipality were prohibited to exit the municipality except for residents leaving for employment in other territories, residents of Nemenčinė working in other territories, as well as persons going to another territory due to necessary medical assistance, and persons holding a permit. The second quarantine was introduced on 7 November 2020 and was still in force in June 2021. The new government (which started office in December 2020) introduced stricter measures on the prevention of COVID-19. It was not only because of the change of government and its policy, but also due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases. The new aspect of the limitations was the prohibition of travelling between municipalities which had been enacted (as mentioned above) for only a short period of time during Easter of 2020 and in Nemenčinė during the outbreak. From December 2020 to the beginning of April, the travelling between municipalities was prohibited, except to go to/from airports, seaports, bus stations serving international passenger routes; to go to the municipality where you live; travelling due to the death of close relatives; to go to work, where the place of employment is in another municipality; for health care services; or for other objectively justified reasons of urgency, where travelling to a municipality other than the place of residence is absolutely necessary. This restriction did not apply to members of one family and/or household travelling to a municipality other than the place of their residence where they have real estate property that is owned by a member of that family and/or household. These restrictions were enacted and enforced by police roadblocks and road checks and by imposition of the fines for those persons who persisted in not upholding the prohibition. The persons travelling to different municipality had to provide documents proving their right to enter another municipality. The infringements of this provision incurred a fine of 60 to 140 Eur (legal entities – 140 to 600 Eur), if the quarantine infringement did not lead to the actual spread of coronavirus, and if it did, the fines are much higher – 500 to 1500 Eur, legal entities 1500 to 6000 Eur). There were quite a lot of cases in the courts regarding the imposition of fines to persons. The restriction of movement between municipalities was lifted at the beginning of April 2021 and was not introduced again. At present (June 2021) there is no prohibition to travel between municipalities, but the number of people meeting is limited to two households meeting outside. Travelling is restricted to two persons in a car not belonging to one household. 3.3 Judicial review Speaking about constitutional jurisprudence in Lithuania, the competence of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania recently was changed and now also includes the ability to decide on individual complaints. In July 2020, the Constitutional Court received a complaint from a citizen who was challenging the decision of the Government regarding the establishment of the first quarantine. He indicated that the disputed decision “restricted the applicant’s constitutional freedom of movement without complying with the requirements

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