The circular economy is recognized as a critical strategy for advancing sustainable development and achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This research addresses the limited application of CE assessments at the municipal level and identifies challenges and opportunities for an improved methodology. In 2024, the first scientifically led survey was conducted across all Latvian municipalities to evaluate the level of circularity or readiness for transitioning from a linear to a circular economy. Through self-assessment, all municipalities provided their perspectives on key dimensions of the new economic paradigm. These insights were integrated with feedback from citizens, collected via a separate nationwide survey, to derive a composite index value. This article aims to review other methods and assessments of circular economy conducted at the municipal level worldwide and to assess their applicability to municipalities. While most of the frameworks, either developed institutionally or by research groups, utilize statistical metrics to assess CE at the municipal level, the objectivity of such an approach is overshadowed by the data availability and complexity of the CE concept. Further research is required to develop state-of-the-art methodologies that combine the aspects of quantity and quality in a good balance. In-depth assessments of specific areas might provide more value than a broad measure for a meaningful transition to a CE.

The modern science is offering to expand opportunities open to a person, for example, to improve a person’s intellectual abilities, to cure the incurable or to prolong lives by such manipulations that were not available before. Legal solutions to these problems cannot be found without the discourse on bioethics. Bioethics pertains to a number of issues that are of vital importance for society, for example, euthanasia, organ transplants, reproductive medicine, the limits and methods of patient care. All principles of bioethics have been created to protect the human being. In this respect, bioethical requirements correlate with a person’s fundamental rights and legally they should be examined within the scope of human dignity. The implementation of scientific findings in the society is strictly limited by fundamental human rights. The constitutional courts, abiding by the bioethical principles, should provide the balance between the person’s own responsibility with that of the State regarding respecting the human dignity and retaining humanity also in the age of technologies.

Soviet Family Law: Genesis and Evolution from the Perspective of the Latvian SSR Experience The Soviet law, which was created at the beginning of the 20th century in Soviet Russia, had evolved on the basis of the legal tradition of Continental Europe; it was a legal system based on the Marxist law theory as understood in Soviet Russia and later in the USSR and the countries that came under its influence, and it differed considerably from the idea of law in Roman and Germanic legal circles. Marxism-Leninism advocated actual equality in society, including gender equality, which determined Soviet state policy in the sphere of marriage and family law. Moreover, Marxism-Leninism turned against private property, which necessitated the separation of family law from civil law into a new individual branch-marriage and family law. In the spring of 1940 the Republic of Latvia was annexed to the Soviet Union. In the territories occupied by the USSR in 1940-Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania-the previously existing national systems of law were replaced by Soviet law, which was grounded in Marxist-Leninist ideology. As a result of the Soviet marriage and family regulations being put in place, the following was established in the territory of Latvia: civil marriage as the only valid form of marriage, equality of spouses, and the equality in the rights of all children regardless of whether they were born in or outside of marriage. These, undoubtedly, were advanced and positive innovations. However, at the same time, a Soviet family was one that lost its private nature, as it was obliged to fulfil tasks of national importance. This, in turn, meant interference by the state and by society in family life; childless families had to pay a childlessness tax, so that the State could use those funds to support orphans, lone mothers and large families with many children.

The aim of the study is to analyse decent work as a value stemming from human dignity. The key factors include a safe and healthy work environment and working conditions, social protection, compliance with employment law, stability of a workplace, opportunities for development, training and self-fulfilment, mutual respect, contacts with colleagues, etc. The impact of the pandemic has changed employees’ views on “perfect job”. Remote work is only one of the new forms of employment created by digitalization, which will increasingly enter and strengthen the labour market. However, not all employers are equally prepared for change. The study will illustrate how the concept of decent work has changed in the context of the pandemic, so that the legislator and employers can reorganize themselves, creating appropriate work environment for employees and promoting the economic sustainability of the country.

The paper focuses on gender equality tradition in Latvia within the discourse of European ideas on gender equality, researching the avenues whereby the political forces decided to give women a political rights at the time of establishing the Republic of Latvia. The analysis leads to a conclusion that the Republic of Latvia joined the group of countries – trailblazers, which at the end of World War I, in establishing, transforming or restoring their statehood, founded a state with a democratic structure and legally enshrined civil society, recognising women as its members with full political rights. The author also challenges a thesis that the society, even after women have been granted full political rights by law, is not in a hurry to change gender statuses and the model of the family.