Initiative of the Public Defender of Georgia on Broadening of Powers of the Constitutional Court

Ombudsman.ge 

On April 8, 2015, the Public Defender presented an initiative on broadening of powers of the Constitutional Court of Georgia.

At the initiative of the Public Defender of Georgia, powers of the Constitutional Court of Georgia is broadened, respectively, the scope of constitutional control is also broadened. To this day, the Constitutional Court only adjudges on constitutionality of normative acts with respect to rights and freedoms envisaged in the second chapter of the Georgian Constitution. The draft law is offering to examine constitutionality of individual judicial acts and judgments passed by common courts that have entered into legal force with this view. According to the draft law, powers of the Constitutional Court of Georgia leave behind the norm-controlling model and establish constitutional control on the basis of a real claim. Similar model is effectively enforced in such authoritative court as the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.

The initiate defines as an exception that during the first year of entering into force the law to be allowed to have a retroactive effect that implies reviewing judgments passed by common courts that have already entered into force. The aforementioned mechanism will allow, for interests of human rights and freedoms, to conduct identification and rectification of shortcomings that violated fundamental requirements of the Constitution of Georgia.

“During last years, the Georgian justice was characterized by serious deficiencies and those shortcomings that were depriving citizens from constitutionally safeguarded right to fair court proceedings, were repeatedly mentioned in various Parliamentary reports of the Public Defender of Georgia.

I believe that there should be certain means and mechanisms for proper implementation of the right to fair proceedings for victims of injustice. Unfortunately, the idea of establishment of the justice shortcoming finding commission was refused due to financial problems that I fail to see as a right decision. Lack of financial resources cannot serve as an argument for not meeting legitimate expectations of the public - on the right to review enforced judgments.

Our idea refers to effective realization of already existing system. Despite the fact that the idea of establishment of the justice shortcoming finding commission has been refused and averted, today expectations still remain in the society that a mechanism will be created through which proceedings of at least some part of cases will be instituted and feeling will appear that not always one needs to go to the European Court of Human Rights”, - said Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili when discussing the initiative.

The initiative caused diverse opinions to emerge, especially with regards to the period of the awarding the retroactive effect to the law, also, increase of the number of constitutional court judges and other issues.

First Deputy Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia Manana Kobakhidze, member of the High Council of Justice Eva Gortsitridze, members of the Constitutional Court Maia Kopaleishvili and Merab Turava, members of the Parliament Zakaria Kutsnashvili and Giorgi Kakhiani  got involved in the discussion; as well as Adviser to the President of Georgia on Issues of Human Rights and Justice Kakha Kozhoridze; also, other stakeholders, including representatives of the common courts and Constitutional Court of Georgia, members of the Council of Justice, representatives of the Georgian President and the Georgian Government, non-governmental organizations and experts.

At the end of the presentation, it was decided that discussions on the initiative of the Public Defender will continue in various formats; also, it will be presented to the Constitutional Commission.

Original text: ombudsman.ge/en/news/initiative-of-the-public-defender-of-georgia-on-broadening-of-powers-of-the-constitutional-court.page