Mr Artūrs KUČS

WORK EXPERIENCE

• 2017 – present:     Judge of the Constitutional Court of Latvia
• 2006 – present:     Associate professor in the Department of International and European Law of the University of Latvia
   
• 2012–2017:          Legal Adviser to the Ombudsman of the Republic of Latvia
• 2013–2017:          Advising expert in Baltic Human Rights Society
• 2007–2017:          Head of the Department of International and European Law of the University of Latvia
• 2009 – present :   Trainer at the Latvian Judicial Training Centre

EDUCATION

• 2004–2006:       PhD in Law, University of Latvia, Faculty of Law in co-operation with University of Aarhus (Denmark)
   
• 2001–2002:       European Master in Human Rights and Democratization (E.MA), University of Padua and University of Lund, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights
   
• 1996–2001:       Jurist (lawyer), University of Latvia, Faculty of Law
   
• 1995–2000:       Bachelor of political science (international relations), University of Latvia, Faculty of History and Philosophy

STUDIES AND RESEARCH

• 2014   -     Venice Academy of Human Rights
   
• 2012   -     Courses in International Human Rights Law, Theory of Law, Philosophical foundations of Human Rights, European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation
   
• 2011   -     Research on the implementation of EU Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law, DAAD Visiting Scholar, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg (Germany)
   
• 2010    -    Research on freedom of expression and its limits in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and US Supreme Court, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, University of Connecticut, School of Law

OTHER EXPERIENCES

• Teaching experience at different universities, e.g., summer school organized by Law-media network of Baltic-Nordic universities in 2017 and 2018, University of Vilnius in 2015, University of Silezia in 2012
• Lectures and training on EU and Human Rights for the staff of the Peoples Advocate of the Republic of Moldova and Centre of Legal Approximation - Ministry of Justice, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, organized by the College of Europe - 2014 -2017
• Since 2012 - expert appointed by the Latvian Council of Science
• Since 2012 - training and consulting of the staff of the Ombudsman office of the Republic of Latvia on recent developments in UN, CE, and EU human rights law
• Since 2009 - lecturer in human rights training programmes organised by the Latvian Judicial Training Centre on jurisprudence of UN human rights bodies and European Court of human rights and Court of Justice of the European Union
• Since 2005 - National Director of the European Master’s Degree programme in Human Rights and Democratisation

FIELDS OF INTEREST

Media law, Minority rights, Constitutional law, International human rights law