On 13 February 2015 the Supreme Court Commission on Reasoning of Judgments presented the final product of the Commission’s work – the Guidelines on Reasoning, Form and Stylistic Coherence of Judgments in Criminal Cases, developed and published with the support of the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Union and US Department of Justice. 

The Chairman of the Supreme Court, Mr. Konstantine Kublashvili gave a brief overview of the Commission’s work and thanked its members, as well as international organisations, including CoE, for the assistance provided to the Commission in developing the Guidebook. Ms Mariana Chicu, representing Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe underlined that the Guidebook is intended to address the lack of or insufficient reasoning of judgments in criminal cases and would contribute to improving the quality of justice in Georgia.

The Guidebook is a practical tool for judges outlining the main issues at stake when writing motivations for their decisions. It includes templates of different types of judgments (judgments of acquittal/conviction/plea bargaining for the first instance, appellate and cassation courts) and provides a body of recommendations on the main aspects of a reasoned judgment. Moreover, it outlines the main approach and principles as developed in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on reasoning of court decisions and it also includes references to the relevant case-law. 

The publication will be of practical value not only for judges and other court staff, but also prosecutors and defense lawyers.  The publication of the Guidebook will be followed by trainings of judges on reasoning of court decisions.

The electronic version of the Guidebook is available at  www.coe.ge

The presentation and publication of the Guidebook is realised in the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening the Independence and Efficiency of the Justice System in Georgia” funded by the Kingdom of Denmark.