Room for Improvement - Judicial Vocational Training System
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, April 19
NGOs demand the change of judicial vocational training system. At the press conference the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) discussed their survey which states that despite the lack of judges and overcrowding of courts in over 2 years, in 2015-2017, the High School of Justice did not receive any students. The survey also highlights the main challenges related to the institutional arrangement of the High School of Justice and its activities. It discusses the issues of distribution of powers between the High School of Justice and the High Council of Justice, as well as a number of problems related to the High School of Justice, including the preparation of justice students, retraining of judges and school programs.
According to the study prepared by the organizations, a significant shortcoming is the formation of an independent council of the High School of Justice, which allows the High Council of Justice to exercise control over school activities.
As Mikheil Benidze, executive director of ISFED stated, the study focused on the necessity of increasing the organizational independence of the High School of Justice, which is essentially important for judicial independence and fair process of judge appointment.
Another core point of the report was the transparency issue of the admission process: "The problem is that the school is not authorized to select justice students. In addition, the effective legislation does not provide enough guarantees to prevent an arbitrary decision on the announcement of the competition by the High Council of Justice. Consequently, there is a risk that the Council will make a decision based on the subjective view and not the judicial interests, "the report says.
The study also showed that the duration of teaching at the High School of Justice is not enough for the preparation of qualified trainees - given present regulations, it is practically impossible to get familiar with all important issues necessary for effectively implementing judicial functions. It was also revealed that the methodology of teaching and quality assurance and development need improvement.
"In addition, the effective legal framework does not provide the objective and transparent process of staffing the Council of Teachers. The important shortcoming is that qualification requirements and selection criteria for the graduating commission members are not regulated, which gives the Independent Council the right to select three members of its own discretion," the report reads.
The focus is on increasing the role of the school in the process of appointment of judges, which is essentially important for the selection of fair and objective process of selection and appointment of judges.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) state that the identified problems indicate the necessity of the root reform of the High School of Justice.
