On 25 November 2014 the Council of Europe (CoE) organised a meeting of the Supreme Court Commission for reasoning of judgments. The meeting was opened by the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Mr. Konstantine Kublashvili, and the first deputy Chairman, Mr. Zaza Meishvili, who highlighted the importance of the Commission in developing recommendations for judges on standards of reasoning of court decisions.

Opening speeches were followed by the presentations of the members of the Commission on evaluating evidence, reasoning of sentences and other problematic issues related to the substantiation of court decisions.

The Supreme Court Commission for reasoning of judgments was set in January, 2014 and is composed of judges, representatives of academia and both national and international experts. CoE is supporting the Commission’s work, including by providing technical expertise in drafting the Guidebook (compilation of recommendations) on reasoning of judgments that shall guide judges in writing the motivations of their decisions. A CoE expert is drafting a detailed report on various procedural aspects in the light of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, to be integrated in the Guidebook. The report will be presented and discussed with the members of the Commission at the beginning of 2015.

The meeting was organized in the framework of the CoE project “Strengthening the Independence and Efficiency of the Justice System in Georgia” funded by the Kingdom of Denmark.