On June 3, Open Society Georgia Foundation organized a discussion meeting on the reform of the Constitutional Court.
Meeting was attended by the representatives of international organizations, non-governmental organizations and academic sector. Legislative amendments recently adopted by the Parliament of Georgia, as well as the remarks of the President of Georgia made about the Constitutional Court reform and the Venice Commission’s opinion on this issue were discussed at the meeting.
Reform of the Law on the Constitutional Court has been launched in the Parliament of Georgia in 2016. According to the Human Rights Committee initiated legislation, rules for electing judges of the Constitutional Court and distributing cases for trial, as well as the rules of signing and promulgating the acts will be changed. The number of votes required for making decision will be also increased. The bill passed the third reading at the beginning of May, following which it was sent to the Venice Commission, which presented its preliminary opinion expeditiously. According to their opinion there are certain concerns the have been identified. The package of motivated remarks drafted by the President of Georgia over the Constitutional Court amendments was submitted to the Parliament. Although some problematic issues are solved through vetoing changes made into the Law on Constitutional Court, certain gaps/unconstitutional provisions still remain in the Law.
