ANDREJEVA v. LATVIA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION 57 country, ought to be carefully examined as the Court has in fact done in other cases (see Epstein and Others, cited above). Conclusions 40. In the circumstances of the present case, I do not see that the applicant has incurred a heavier burden than the rest of the generation that spent their life working in the Soviet Union. In 1992 Latvia experienced a total collapse of the national economy. The State had practically no money. At the end of 1992 a flat-rate pension was introduced in the entire country, whereby all individuals were entitled, without any distinction, to the amount of 15 Latvian lati (LVL – 21.34 euros). Four years later, even if the citizens in principle had to be compensated for their years of work during the Soviet period, the standard pension received by the majority of the population amounted to LVL 22. The State could not afford any more. Since the applicant was working at the time, this measure did not apply to her. The approach of Latvia was balanced with respect to different demands in a particularly complicated historical context. 41. The issue that this case raised is many times more complicated and delicate than meets the eye and the rather simplistic approach of the majority is hard to understand. Not only is it a case where the Court should have addressed a complex area of international law but it is a case where questions of nation-building in a post-colonial context and frictions between a new titular nation and a new minority which had lost its former privileges are necessarily in the background. With this case, the Court is placed in the midst of all that. The judgment will be read through these various perspectives, even if the Court was trying to avoid entering into any of these questions. Be that as it may, the Court cannot always avoid taking a position on complex matters and instead deal with issues in a narrow and isolated manner. The Court should not go against the general rule of interpretation as set forth in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and thus act ultra vires. In international law this raises a somewhat new challenge as concerns the value of such judicial decisions. The Court should not contribute to the fragmentation of international law in the name of alleged human rights, nor should it readily take decisions that may undermine State-building since the enforcement of human rights still requires strong and democratic State institutions (for an example where the Court follows this approach, see Ždanoka, cited above). 42. The majority indeed only focused on the distinction drawn on the basis of lack of nationality in the transitional provisions of the State Pensions Act and brought the prohibition of such a distinction close to having an absolute character. They did not contradict the arguments of the respondent State; they simply failed to see the relevance of such arguments. The Court therefore does not pronounce on any relevant issues under