Lithuania’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday refused to examine a lower court’s request to review the absence of legal provisions allowing transgender people to change gender markers and personal identification codes in official documents.
The court said the issue falls outside its jurisdiction because the referral effectively asked it to assess legislative inaction. The judges noted they lack authority to review the parliament’s failure, delay, or refusal to pass laws, even when such inaction creates gaps or ambiguities in the legal system.
The request came from the Vilnius Regional District Court, which had suspended a civil case brought by a transgender woman seeking to change her name, gender marker and personal code in official records.
The court asked whether provisions of the Civil Status Registration Act and the Population Register Act were unconstitutional, as the first does not regulate gender changes while the second states that a personal code is unchangeable.
Lithuanian personal codes indicate a person’s gender.
The applicant argued that gender changes should be governed under the same law as other civil status registrations. The regional court also pointed to the Civil Code, which grants unmarried adults the right to medically change gender where possible, noting that such changes require updates to personal data including name, surname, gender and personal code.
According to the referral, this created a situation in which gender change is legally permitted but lacks implementing legislation, leaving individuals unable to exercise their rights outside of lengthy court proceedings.
The Constitutional Court responded that until the parliament, Seimas, adopts the necessary laws, lower courts must address gaps in the legal framework when handling such cases.
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