The Open Society Foundations and Research Institute Gnomon Wise presents academic research “Vetting of the Judiciary in Theoretical and Comparative Perspective – Recommendations for Georgia.”
In recent years, there has been a consensus in the Georgian public-political sphere on the fundamental delegitimization of the Georgian judiciary, which substantially hinders the establishment of Georgia as a constitutional democracy. Institutional reconstruction of the judiciary is essential in transitioning from Soviet rule to constitutional democracy. Unfortunately, some attempts to reform the Georgian judiciary have failed over the past 30 years. Civil society and international partners view the judiciary reforms as unsuccessful.
Institutional reform of the judiciary, in turn, should include a radical reform of the court staff, which has not been the case with the Georgian judiciary so far.
The presented paper reviews international examples and examines the issue of personnel reform in the judiciary from theoretical and comparative perspectives. In addition, the report explores the mechanism for verifying compliance with the position of judges and its potential for a comprehensive institutional overhaul of the judiciary.
Finally, the paper aims to base its analytical findings on general and specific recommendations on staff reform measures to be used to reconstruct the Georgian judiciary. The recommendations are conditional, and their implementation will be possible in case of changes in different directions.
See the paper in full.
