Supreme Court of Georgia

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SUPREME COURT ADDRESSED TO THE PARLIAMENT WITH THE INITIATIVE REGARDING THE NEW RULE OF THE APPOINTMENT OF JUDGES

Published: 10/04/2013

On October 3, 2013, the Chairman of the Supreme Court Mr. Konstantin Kublashvili addressed to the Parliament of Georgia to suspend the draft law regarding the lifetime appointment of the judges.

This week the Parliament of Georgia on the first hearing has considered the draft law related to the amendments in the Law on Common Courts of Georgia, which also includes the lifetime appointment of judges and the so-called a three-year probationary period. The Chairman of the Supreme Court addressed to the Parliament by the initiative and asked to suspend the review of the drafts temporarily, until April of 2014.

The reason, the Parliament is considering this issue in such a speedy manner is that the provision of the Constitution of Georgia that establishes the lifetime appointment of the Judges shall enter into force.

According to the Article 86 of Georgian Constitution: “Judges are life-time appointed, unless they reach the age determined by the Law. Before life-time appointment of the Judge, the Law may envisage the appointment of the judge for definite period, no more than 3 years. The rules on selection, appointment or dismissal of judges are defined by the Constitution and the organic law.” This article shall enter into force from the next presidential elections in October 2013, from the moment of the oath ceremony of the newly elected president, i.e. from November 17, 2013.

“We think that it would not be sensible to discuss and adopt the draft of such an important matter that concerns the lifetime appointment of judges, even if the Constitution requires the least possible time. We just discussed this important issue at the level of principles, and we did not have the opportunity to discuss all the details more thoroughly and comprehensively. We propose to the Parliament a temporary suspension of the draft and also we inform that, until April 2014, the judges will no longer be appointed according to the new rule”.

According to the Chairman of the Supreme Court, it will prevent us from the problem, which refers to the enactment of constitutional provisions regarding the uncertainty of appointment of judges. “Following from the objective situation, after October 15, no new judge will be appointed in the Georgian justice system, as on October 15, the High Council of Justice will vote for the candidates who now will be appointed according to old rules that are still act, for a period of ten years. After that, neither the human resources nor the objective needs will exist to appoint the new judges in the court system”, declared the Chairman of the Supreme Court at the briefing.

According to the initiative of Mr. Konstantin Kublashvili these 5 months should be used in order to conduct detailed work with the parliament and the government and to determine how much it is sensible to establish a three-year probationary period.

"We will need to make sure what such changes will bring to the country and the judiciary," - said Mr. Konstantin Kublashvili to the media and presented the opinions of international and local non-governmental organizations in this regard, which unambiguously give the negative assessment to the appointment of a judge for a three-year probationary period, as a use of leverage to evaluate a judges decisions. The Venice Commission also considered a three-year probationary period as a political tool to influence a judge.

At the end of the briefing the Chairman of the Supreme Court also answered the questions of media.