On 12 January 2015 the Council of Europe (CoE) organised a meeting of the Supreme Court Commission on Reasoning, Form and Stylistic Coherence of the Judgments in Criminal Cases summarising the work of the Commission carried out since its creation.  The event was attended by the members of the Commission, international and local experts, representatives of academia and judges from the first instance, appellate and cassation courts.

The Chairman of the Supreme Court, Mr Konstantine Kublashvili addressed the participants in his welcome speech. He thanked the CoE and other donors for supporting the Commission and emphasised the importance of informing a wide audience of judges about the results of the Commission’s work.

CoE expert Ana-Maria Telbis made a presentation of the report summarising the approach and basic principles outlined in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on reasoning of court decisions. The presentation was followed by a discussion moderated by the first Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court, Mr. Zaza Meishvili. During the discussion many judge participants stressed the importance of taking into consideration the standards of ECtHR as developed in its case-law in writing motivation of their decisions and expressed appreciation for the fact that important aspects of the report would be reflected in the final recommendations of the Commission.  

The Supreme Court Commission was set up in January 2014 and its mandate expires in January 2015. As a result of the Commission’s work, the Guidebook (compilation of recommendations) on reasoning of judgments has been developed. The Guidebook is intended to be an important tool for judges in writing the motivation of their decisions. The document will be published and widely disseminated among judges and other court staff.

The meeting is organised 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.