Georgia: Judges Try to Get in Shape for Courtroom

A training school for prospective judges is winning cautious acclaim for fostering improvements in Georgia's much-maligned judicial system. But critics contend that one key challenge -- preventing judges from allowing outside forces to influence their verdicts -- remains to be fully addressed.

Georgian judges have long been popularly associated with corruption, government interference and arbitrary rulings. A 2009 survey by pollster Gorbi International reported that nearly half of the 1,000 respondents believed that Georgian judges depend on the government for instructions before rendering case decisions. Those criticisms were leveled most recently at the 2009 Mukhrovani mutiny trial and at the court-ordered disposal of assets belonging to the late oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The state-run High School of Justice (HSOJ), established in 2006, is seen as an attempt to change those perceptions. All Georgian lawyers hoping to become judges must now first complete the HSOJ curriculum.

The 14-month program emphasizes practical experience; prospective judges hold mock trials and intern with Tbilisi City Court judges. Their regular coursework includes seminars with visiting foreign judges.

Nana Vasadze, the head of public relations at the Supreme Court of Georgia, states that the school established a new system to prepare people as future judges. "Before the school, the judges who were passing the exams to become judges were directly ? assigned to their positions. But with this school, they have to take a special training," she said.

"The training includes how to manage a court, manage the trial and communicate with all the people involved in a case," she added. "We have some graduates [already]; they say they didn't even know how difficult it was to be a judge because they have to deal with these specific things."

In order to be accepted into the program, a prospective judge has to be at least 28, have a law degree, five years of legal experience and have passed a judicial qualification exam, according to the Supreme Court of Georgia website.
Graduation from the program offers no guarantee that a student will become a judge. A High Council of Justice, made up of court administrators, appoints lower-court Georgian judges for 10-year terms. So far, only a dozen or so students who have graduated from HSOJ and been named to the bench.

Representatives of Western donor organizations that have worked with the HSOJ generally express satisfaction with the school's results, but declined to be cited.

Some local attorneys interviewed by EurasiaNet.org say that the training appears to be paying off, explaining that they have an impression that judicial verdicts seem better written now. But the local attorneys also caution that Georgia's legal system still requires radical reform.

"[HSOJ] works successfully; it has good support," commented attorney Vakhtang Mchedlishvili, a former assistant at the High Council of Justice and the Supreme Court. "[B]ut that cannot change anything since the legislative branch and the executive branch are not working to give the judges more authority."

Disciplinary measures for judges are based on vague rules that result in fear of arbitrary punishments for decisions that go against government interests, said the head of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association Chairperson Tamar Khidasheli. A regulation that allows judges to be reassigned to another district without their consent is a particular source of concern, she claimed.

The government acknowledges the scope of the challenge, but insists that progress is being made. In his February 26 speech to parliament on the state of the country, President Mikheil Saakashvili underlined measures taken "to create a more effective judiciary," including the introduction of trial by jury; the end of lifelong, presidential appointments for judges; and the presence of an opposition member on the High Council of Judges, among other measures.

Monthly salaries have also been increased from 1,450 laris (about $840) for local judges to 4,100 laris (about $2,374) for a Supreme Court judge, according to the most recent data available. Courthouses are also being modernized.

Gia Kavtaradze, a former executive secretary of the High Council of Justice who served two years as justice minister under Saakashvili, contends that the reforms are missing the mark. "The vision before was [to make] fairer decisions. Logistics will follow. Today, the vision is logistics first, fairness will follow," Kavtaradze said.

Supreme Court spokesperson Vasadze argues that the courts are being blamed for laws the judges have to enforce. In some high-profile cases, like the Sandro Girgvliani murder trial in 2006-2007, controversial verdicts have influenced public opinion, she said.

"The court could not do anything special except to follow legislation. Society was not content with the strictness of the law," Vasadze noted.

She added that courts are aware that the public seems dissatisfied with their performance. "A lot of attention is paid to social research and what the public thinks," she said. "So now we dwell on that problem and we will conduct our effort to make them believe that things are not as they were before."

"There have been a lot of changes and this court system works much better," Vasadze added.
Ultimately, commented Civil Court Judge Diana Berikashvili, responsibility for judicial independence rests with Georgia's judges themselves. Being a judge, she said, requires "being brave."