US Embassy issues a recommendation letter addressed to Parliament of Georgia regarding the judicial reform
By Liza Mchedlidze
Thursday, August 18, 2022
The US embassy addressed the recommendations to the Parliament of Georgia regarding judicial reform. According to them, the staffing of the Supreme Council of Justice is a subject of intense debate, especially when "the Parliament has not been able to fill the vacant positions of non-judge members":
"In order to strengthen the voice of non-judge members in the Council and to create an opportunity for their real participation in the decision-making process, we recommend revising the ratio between the judge and non-judge members in the Supreme Council of Justice."
In the recommendation letter, the US Embassy writes that the Parliament should ensure a transparent selection of members of the Supreme Council of Justice, where representatives of opposition parties, the legal profession, and civil society will have the opportunity to participate in the interview process with the candidate:
"Parliament, while filling this important vacancy, should consider appointing only highly qualified, apolitical candidates and non-judge members of the Supreme Council of Justice with broad cross-party support by law, and should also take into account the process of appointing a member of the Supreme Council of Justice by the President and bring it into line with the recommended parliamentary process for appointing members.
As for the composition of the Supreme Council of Justice, taking into account the full control of the judicial members over the process of voting and decision-making by the Council, the composition of the Supreme Council of Justice is a subject of intense discussion.
Also, we recommend the gradual appointment of the members of the Supreme Council of Justice, so as not to renew the full composition of the Council at the same time. Also, the term of office of a member of the Council should be terminated only after his/her replacement is elected/appointed in accordance with the law. The best solution would be to establish a system where, each time, the Supreme Council of Justice is renewed with only one-third of its members.
The term of office of the members of the Supreme Council of Justice: the provision provided by the organic law on common courts should be returned to the existing version until December 2021 and take into account the prohibition of the possibility of electing the members of the Council twice in a row. This change will increase the independence of the Supreme Council of Justice", the document reads.
The US Embassy notes that the existing procedure for electing judges of the Supreme Council of Justice should be changed by legislation.
"According to the legislation, the existing procedure for electing the judges of the Supreme Council of Justice should be changed. All candidates are required to register and submit their vision in advance so that the judges' conference participants have the opportunity to evaluate the candidate's suitability for the position before voting. Each candidate must have the opportunity to address the conference of judges. Also, each judge participating in the conference must vote for only one candidate, regardless of the number of vacancies to be filled. The vacancy of a member of the Supreme Council of Justice shall be filled by the candidates who will receive the highest number of votes. The existing requirement of the law, according to which the support of at least 2/3 of the members present at the conference is necessary for the election of a member of the Supreme Council of Justice by the Conference of Judges, should be canceled. After all vacancies have been filled, a reserve list shall be drawn up from the remaining candidates in descending order of votes. In the event of a vacancy occurring as a judge member of the High Council of Justice, the vacancy shall be filled by the next candidate on this reserve list for the remainder of the four-year term of office of the member on the High Council of Justice. In order to avoid the concentration of power in the hands of a small group of judges and to reduce the influence of a few judges in administrative and leadership positions on the judicial system, the law should be amended and the chairman of the court, the deputy chairman, the chairman of the collegium and the chamber should be limited in the possibility of being elected to the Supreme Council of Justice," the recommendation document reads.
