საერთო ცხელი ხაზი +995 577 07 05 63
On December 24 last year, the High Council of Justice presented the Parliament of Georgia with a list of ten candidates for the Supreme Court. The selection of candidates was conducted in a blatant and swift manner, with clear procedural violations, and the final list clearly reflected the interests of the influential group of judges.
In light of public and political pressure, Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs no longer discussed the matter in an expedited manner, and those nominated by the Council themselves refused the nomination of their candidacies. At the Spring Session of 2019, the Parliament of Georgia began to regulate the selection and appointment of judges and to work on draft amendments to the relevant normative acts to this end. Unfortunately, even with these changes, the legislators failed to create a fully-fledged legislative framework that would impose certain barriers and restrictions on an influential group of judges. The bill tabled in Parliament was strongly criticized by the Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary, much of the criticism was also shared by authoritative international organizations such as the Venice Commission and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
Finally, the authors of the draft law only considered part of the recommendations presented and important issues such as the nomination of a candidate by open ballot and a reasoned decision; Eliminating conflicts of interest in the decision-making process by the High Council of Justice; Inadequate involvement of non-judge Council members in the decision-making process and etc, still remained unresolved
The re-selection of candidates at the High Council of Justice was carried out in accordance with the aforementioned flawed legislation and naturally, there were numerous violations identified in the process. Finally, 20 candidates were selected and submitted to Parliament of Georgia by the Council, and during the Autumn Session open committee hearings were conducted for individual consideration of the candidacies. The Parliament of Georgia has not yet made a final decision on the candidates, but the committee hearings have clearly identified problems in relation to both, the specific candidates and the judicial system as a whole.
The process of selecting and appointing judges to the Supreme Court is crucial for the Georgian justice system, and the end result of these processes largely determines the degree of judicial independence and political neutrality.
Bill known as the "Fourth Wave of Judicial Reform" was also introduced at the Georgian Parliament in the fall of 2019. The draft law improves a number of issues related to the discipline of judges, as well as the process of selecting students for the High School of Justice. However, the bill still fails to define the rules for appointing the Court chairs, fails to ensure proper transparency of disciplinary responsibility of the judges, and to provide for the publicity of sessions of the High Council of Justice.
