Complete issue (pdf, 7520.08 MB, EN) - GIZ

CommItment
In recent years, new learning materials have been developed for legal studies.
tives even making it into senior government
posts.
Perhaps inevitably, the official court buildings
at that time were in an even more dilapidated
state than other public authorities. Even in
the late 1990s, the Rotary Club of Tbilisi spent
a weekend refurbishing the interior of a court
building in the Georgian capital so that at least
one courtroom was in a fit state to instil the necessary
confidence in Georgia’s ‘new justice’. Even
the Minister of Justice wielded a paintbrush in
this act of goodwill.
Against this background, the outcomes of
the reform efforts in all three Caucasus countries
certainly stand up to scrutiny. This was borne out
by two international conferences that took place
in Tbilisi and Baku in spring and summer this
year. In Tbilisi, the Caucasus judges’ conference
was facilitated by GIZ on behalf of the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development (BMZ) and the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP). The participants
took stock of the judicial reforms in the
South Caucasus region in the light of the Bangalore
Principles of Judicial Conduct (see Box,
right). In Baku, the international seminar on current
administrative justice was also facilitated by
GIZ on behalf of BMZ, in conjunction with the
Judicial Legal Council of Azerbaijan.
Improved standing of the
judicial system
The two conferences sent out the same basic message.
They reaffirmed that the separation of powers
is enshrined as a constitutional principle in all
three Caucasus countries, as is the independence
of the judiciary. Judges are now nominated and
appointed by supreme judicial councils. The
transparency of the legal process is guaranteed.
Great importance is attached to advanced professional
training for judges. Judges’ salaries are generally
commensurate with the judicial office
held – an important starting point for combating
the corruption that was once rife in the region’s
courtrooms. Most court buildings nowadays –
also in rural areas – are well-furnished and
equipped to a good technical standard. The reputation
of the judicial system, as a constituent pillar
of the rule-of-law state, has improved, especially
in the field of civil law, not least in response
to foreign investors’ need for legal certainty.
Georgia, for example, has a system of civil and
commercial law that meets European standards,
and this is reflected in the way routine court business
is handled.
In all three countries, substantial progress
has also been achieved in the field of administrative
law. Armenia has its own three-tier system of
jurisdiction in this field of law. There are no administrative
courts in Georgia, but an equivalent
system of procedural law has been well-established
for many years. In Azerbaijan, complaints
relating to public authorities are dealt with by the
commercial and administrative courts. A separate
administrative jurisdiction is an important measure
of the progress being made on judicial reform,
for it offers citizens – for the first time – the opportunity
to defend themselves against measures
30 akzente 04/2011