Supreme Court of Georgia

A visit of American Judges to the Supreme Court of Georgia

Published: 03/14/2018

A delegation of American judges from Atlanta (Georgia) paid a working visit to the Supreme Court of Georgia at the invitation of Georgian judiciary and within the program of the U.S.  Department of Justice. The delegation was presented by judges: Ann Harris, Benjamin Studdard, James Bodiford and a Chief Prosecutor of the same district, Thomas Charron.

The delegation was received by the chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Ms.Nino Gvenetadze. The meeting was attended also by other judges of the Supreme Court of Georgia from Criminal, Administrative and Civil Cases Chambers, representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice Michael Grant and Nata Tsnoriashvili.

The chief Justice welcomed the guests and thanked American government and the Department of Justice for their great support and contribution to development of Georgian judiciary and increasing public trust. In that regard, working meetings of American and Georgian legal professionals are significant for sharing professional experience. Several meetings of that type had been held both in Georgia and the U.S.A.  

Meetings in similar formats will be held in future as well within bilateral cooperation and relations that will promote growth of public trust to the courts and improvement of the quality of human rights protection.

During their visit to Georgia, the delegation also visited Sighnaghi and Gori District Courts, Rustavi and Tbilisi City courts and attended court hearings. The American judges shared their experience with Georgian colleagues on topics, like: domestic violence, pre-trial sentencing investigation, custodial measures, publication bans  for the media, procedural agreement, cases of court criticism by the sides and the media, jury institution and etc. The visit of the delegation completed on 16 March.