Gov’t approves law to evaluate judges

The Government of Georgia has approved a draft law that outlines criteria to evaluate judges during their three-year probationary period before they are appointed for life.

The issue was raised today at a Government meeting by Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani and will be sent to Parliament for consideration in the near future.

The draft law foresees evaluating the judges six times during their three-year probationary period with the new criteria.

Tsulukiani said the amendment would affect all judges who were appointed since President Giorgi Margvelashvili came into power in 2013.

"We are introducing a system under which judges, throughout their three-year probationary period, will be evaluated every year by two assessors. Six conclusions will be made and the Justice Council will decide if the judge is worthy to carry the mantle with the two thirds of voices,” she said.

"The evaluation criteria are professional as well as personal, to rule out the appointment of candidates who are corrupt or do not know the law, or most importantly do not know how to behave in the court and how to substantiate their decisions,” the Minister said.

There are currently 12 judges appointed on the three-year probationary period.

"There will be a very strict filter to ensure that the newly appointed judges are not appointed for life if they do not know their job, are biased, not independent and do not deserve judge’s robes. This is going to become one of the cornerstones of our justice reform,” she added.