According to the Venice Commission, the Amendments to the law on common courts go in the right direction and meet the first part of the Commission’s recommendation that “reasoned decisions regarding the selection and exclusion of candidates must be produced”, but the other recommendation made in the June 2019 Urgent Opinion appears not to be reflected in these draft Amendments and remains to be addressed.

“In order to meet the Commission’s other recommendation “to provide for a judicial appeal” against the decisions by the HCoJ not to select a candidate judge, it is further necessary: – To provide for the disclosure, together with the vote and the reasoning, the identity of the member of the HCoJ who cast the vote; – To allow a second and final appeal to the Qualifications Chamber of the Supreme Court against the second decision of the HCoJ.

The recommendation that “The requirement for non-judge candidates to have passed the judicial qualification examination should be reconsidered because, […], only “specialist of distinguished qualification in the field of law” may be non-judge candidates for the Supreme Court.

Persons with such qualifications should not be forced to sit an examination to prove that they are capable of dealing with points of law, which is the essence of the work of a Supreme Court”; the recommendation that “A member of the High Council of Justice, who is a candidate for judges of the Supreme Court, should be excluded from all procedures pertaining to the selection and nomination of these candidates” and the recommendation that “The procedure for the appointment of a Supreme Court judge should be initiated before the end of a judge’s term of office, so as to ensure that the Supreme Court is not short of judges” were taken into account through a legislative amendment enacted on 1 May 2019”, reads the report.

The Venice Commission regrets that the draft Amendments were adopted at their third and final reading on 30 September 2020, however, remains at the disposal of the Georgian authorities for further assistance on this matter.