As the membership of the court grew very slowly (a third judge was added only in June 1921 and the fourth in July 1923) while the number of cases grew significantly, the court frequently invited district judges and even sworn attorneys to the bench.
[1] The law established a three-tier court system with the Supreme Tribunal based in Vilnius at the top.
[2] After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940, the tribunal was reduced to two members and officially liquidated on 26 September 1940 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars.
[2] After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Provisional Government of Lithuania ordered reestablishment of the pre-Soviet court system.
The tribunal with three judges (Ciplijauskas, Jonas Gudauskis [lt], and Saliamonas Baltūsis [lt]) started its work, but it was effectively disbanded on 14 February 1942 when officials of the Reichskommissariat Ostland did not sanction its continued work (other Lithuanian courts were allowed to function).
[2] Due to difficult economic situation and lack of educated jurists, Lithuania did not have a separate court of cassation and it was hoped that since there is only one Supreme Tribunal for the entire country it could also handle the function of law interpretation.
For example, it could hear complaints regarding the implementation of the land reform of 1922 or decrees of ministers or country governors related to municipal matters.
[2] The Klaipėda section was closed when Lithuania lost the region after the German ultimatum of March 1939.
The meeting, which needed a quorum of at least two-thirds of all tribunal judges, could interpret and rule on laws that were inconsistently applied by various courts.
[1] The tribunal handled some controversial high-profile cases, including corruption cases of Prime Minister Vytautas Petrulis and Minister of Foreign Affairs Juozas Purickis, case of Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras (1932),[1] as well as the murder charges against priest Konstantinas Olšauskas[4] and slander charges against Jonas Šliūpas.
[7][8] Since old Russians laws were still in effect in most of Lithuania, the decisions and rulings of the Russian Governing Senate were widely cited and used in practice even though the Lithuanian tribunal ruled in 1923 that such decisions were equal to a personal opinion of a jurist.
[3] In July 1920, the tribunal ruled that all legal proceedings need to be conducted in the Lithuanian language.
Chairman Kriščiukaitis published summary reviews of the proceedings in journal Teisė (Law) that he edited.
The tribunal had to invite judges from district courts to attend the proceedings until the third member, Michał Pius Römer, was appointed in June 1921.
[9] Therefore, the court continued to invite district judges and even sworn attorneys to the bench.
[1] In 1925, Minister Antanas Tumėnas reassigned Janulaitis from the tribunal to the district count in Panevėžys.
Tumėnas was served an interpellation and was questioned why he made the appointments without Janulaitis' request or consent as dictated by the Russian laws that Lithuania inherited.
In early 1940, the tribunal had 16 judges: Liudas Ciplijauskas, Simanas Petrauskas, Juozas Brazaitis, Petras Adomavičius, Saliamonas Baltūsis, J. Boreika, Martynas Brazdeilinas, Česlovas Butkys, Juozas Grigaitis, Silvestras Leonas, Mykolas Mataitis, Julius Matulevičius, Napoleonas Morkvėnas, Jonas Staškevičius, Aleksas Vaitonis, A.