In order to further enhance the quality of the Ethics Commission’s decisions and provide clear, well-substantiated reasoning to the citizens of Georgia, the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the USAID and the Georgian Bar Association organised a two day training on legal drafting and analyses. The training took place on 13-14 February in Borjomi, Georgia. Two national trainers have been studying Ethics Commission’s recent judgments to identify areas which could benefit from further clarity. As a result, a training program has been designed and adjusted to the specific needs of the Commission’s members and lawyers. During the training, the participants analysed their actual decisions, identified gaps and re-drafted them based on the CREAC/IRAC methods of legal writing. The participants eventually agreed that “More time could be dedicated to legal reasoning rather than merely fitting into the draft judgment’s template”.

This meeting took place under the EU/CoE Joint Project "Support to the Georgian Bar Association", which is funded by the Programmatic Cooperation Framework for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus. The Council of Europe and European Union are working in partnership with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus to help them meet European standards in human rights, democracy and the rule of law and improve the lives of citizens.