Konstitucinė valstybės biudžeto doktrina

The article pays much attention to the doctrine on laws restricting the state budget, which was formulated by the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court formulated it while interpreting the provision of Paragraph 2 of Article 131 of the Constitution that the Seimas, while debating the budget, is not allowed to reduce the expenditure established by laws as long as the said laws are not altered. While formulating the constitutional concept of such laws, the Constitutional Court emphasised their exceptional nature - it is not allowed to regulate, by means of laws that are not laws on the state budget and which provide for certain expenditure, the relations which, under the Constitution, may be regulated only by the law on the state budget. The article also reviews the constitutional doctrine on the state budget during an economic crisis and pays attention to the conditions under which the state budget reducing social guarantees is approved during such an economic crisis: the state budget providing for reduced salaries and pensions can be established only for the period of one year; while approving such a state budget, there is a duty to assess whether the difficult economic situation in the state, due to which such less favourable funding must be continued, still persists. In the course of explaining the doctrine on the budget formulated by the Constitutional Court the author gives examples of the jurisprudence of some other courts as well.