Supreme Court of Georgia

Delegation of Estonian Judges in the Supreme Court of Georgia

Published: 10/16/2015

On October 15, 2015 the Supreme Court of Georgia hosted the Delegation of Estonian judges, which comprises with: The judge of the Estonian Cassation Court - Ms. Leah kiwi; Chairperson of Tartu District Court - Ms. Liivi Loyde and the judges of Tartu district  Court: Ms. Eveli Vavreniuki; Mr. Tiit Likhmusi; Mr. Agu Tim; Mr. Andrus Miilaste; Mr. Zakaria Kinkladze.

The meeting was attended by the judges of the Supreme Court of Georgia and the members of High Council of Justice.

The guests were welcomed by the Chairperson of Supreme Court and the High Council of Justice. Nino Gvenetatdze informed the foreign guests regarding the planned legislative changes envisaged under the third stage Georgian Judiciary Reform, which is connected to the amendments of organic law on “Common Courts" and the law on  "Disciplinary responsibility and disciplinary proceedings of judges of Common Courts of Georgia" in order to introduce the effective and efficient mechanism for improving of judicial accountability by the establishing of concrete institutions: independent inspector and management department.  Nino Gvenetadze paid particular attention and underlined the following key issues for the joint discussion: The efficiency of judicial proceedings; Judges workload and comparative analysis of the countries legislation (with respect to Bankruptcy cases).

According to the statement of the chairperson of the Supreme Court:  “Reform proposals are related to the introduction of project on electronic and random distribution of cases in common courts of Georgia, which should create the bases of impartial, transparent and efficient distribution of cases among judges; the existing mechanism based on alphabetical and sequential distribution will be changed by the automatic electronic distribution of cases; random and judges equal loading mechanism will be operated, that will eliminate a number of uncomfortable questions, which is associated with the legality and impartiality of the trial judge, will eradicate  the current dissatisfaction among the judges with regard to the errors in the distribution of cases and the parties distrust to the proceedings which in some cases are related to the distribution of cases to particular judge.”

Within the framework of the meeting, Nino Gvenetadze in addition spoke with colleagues regarding the introduction of new admissibility criteria of the cassation appeal, which aimed at the raising of the standard of proof of courts decision by actual using of established approach of the European Convention and the European Courts case law.  

The delegation expressed appreciation to the Chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia for providing the detailed information and they reviewed the Estonian legislation and judicial practice related with the above-mentioned issues and answered the questions from Georgian colleagues. 

The participants also discussed in addition the fixed term appointment of judges and the issues of pension of judges. The sides outlined the future plans for closer cooperation.

At the end of the meeting the chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia and the judge of the Estonias Cassation Court exchanged the memorable gifts.  Members of the delegation looked at the historic building of the Supreme Court and visited museum of justice.

It should be noted that the visit of judges of the Estonian delegation in Georgia lasted one week and they met with the judges of Batumi City Court, Kutaisi Court of Appeal, Tbilisi City Court and the Supreme Court of Georgia.