On March 9, after several weeks interval, the High Council of Justice discussed the nomination of the Chairman of the Supreme Court to the Parliament. It should be noted that the issue was not mentioned in the agenda published by the Council in advance and the public did not have any information ahead of time that the issue would be discussed at the March 9 sitting. This happened in light of the fact that the post of the Chairman of the Supreme Court is critically important for the Georgian judiciary, and there is a high level of public interest in this issue.

It is worth noting, that since August 2018, after the resignation of the former Chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Nino Gvenetadze, the position is still vacant. The High Council of Justice has not discussed the issue for months, and the issue of appointment of the chairman of the Supreme Court has only reemerged on the agenda of the council since the Georgian parliament appointed 14 judges to the Supreme Court later last year.

As for the issue of the Chairman of the Supreme Court, at the initiative of the Secretary of the High Council of Justice, on March 10, at 15:00, the consultations with the judges of the Supreme Court will take place in the Supreme Court. The consultations will be held behind closed doors and its estimated duration will be one hour, although it is unclear what procedure and regulations will be taken into account for the final deliberation for appointing judges to the position. Following the consultations, the High Council of Justice will hold a hearing in the Supreme Court, where the nomination of the particular candidates to the parliament will be discussed. According to the Organic Law of Georgia, a candidate for the position of the chairman of the Supreme Court shall be nominated by the High Council of Justice to the Parliament if the candidate is supported by at least 2/3 of the present members of the Council. Under the circumstances when the procedure for selecting a candidate for the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is not regulated in details by the legislation, holding a consultative meeting with judges may be evaluated as a positive step. However, the proposed procedure does not leave a sense of credibility, as the one-hour deadline set for the consultation cannot objectively be sufficient for a proper discussion between 22 judges of the Supreme Court and the members of the Council. This fact once again shows that the consultation with the judges of the Supreme Court is of a formal nature and the purpose of the Council is not to conduct a real discussion. Also, due to the importance of the issue, especially in light of high public interest, conducting consultations in a closed format has a negative impact on the credibility of the process.

In view of all the abovementioned, we appeal to the High Council of Justice of Georgia to:

• Conduct the process of selecting a candidate for the chairman of the Supreme Court openly and transparently;
• Nominate a candidate with a relatively high level of public confidence as a candidate, which should also preclude the appointment of a person for the post of Chairman of the Supreme Court with a particularly negative reputation.

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