On July 24, the Group of Independent Lawyers, supported by the USAID Rule of Law Program, hosted a discussion of the system of judicial integrity checks and the redistribution of power proposed by the Georgian President in the “Georgian Charter,” a roadmap of key reforms. Over fifty judges, lawyers, legal researchers, representatives of international organizations, local civil society groups, academics, and representatives of political parties participated.

Hans Petter Graver, a professor at the University of Oslo, explained how the level of public trust enjoyed by a court correlates with the model of judicial council running the court system. Dr. Nino Tsereteli, a researcher of justice systems at Democracy Reporting International Berlin, explained how Councils of Justice have evolved in European countries.  Judge Nino Bakakuri of the Supreme Court of Georgia, explained the role Georgia’s High Council of Justice plays in protecting the independence of individual judges. Austrian judge and former member of the UN Special Tribunal for Sierra Leone, Renate Winter, described the why, in her view, the concentration of administrative powers in the hands of Georgia’s High Council of Justice is a problem.

Ulrich Hagenloch, the former chairman of the Dresden High Court, Germany, talked about the proportionality of benefits of the vetting process and the protection of the constitutional rights of judges. Aleš Zalar, Chairman of the Advisory Group of Experts of Ukraine (AGE) and the former President of the Regional Court of Ljubljana, Slovenia, shared insights into procedures and criteria used by AGE for checking integrity of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

Sopo Verdzeuli from the Komentari Platform spoke about the preconditions, forms, and major risks of judicial vetting that need to be resolved in the process of introducing the integrity check mechanism in Georgia.

Giorgi Davituri, representative of the Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary and the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), concluded the event, and spoke on the importance of political will and the need for an in-depth assessment of the problems in the Georgian court system for implementing judicial integrity checks.