President names his candidate for Supreme Court Judge

Today President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili presented his nominee for the position of judge in the Supreme Court of Georgia.

The President has chosen Levan Bodzashvili, 42, who currently serves as Deputy Secretary of Georgia’s State Security Council. He has years of experience in the legal and diplomatic fields. 

Margvelashvili described him as a man of "high qualifications and an exemplary past.” 

The President named Bodzashvili instead of Anna Dolidze,  Georgia’s ex-Deputy Defence Minister and Margvelashvili’s pick for the Supreme Court Judge, who was appointed as the President’s Parliamentary Secretary. 

Now Parliament must vote for the new nominee together with two other female candidates  for the the post of Supreme Court judge, who failed to gain the lawmakers’ support last month. 

The President newly named the same candidates following the earlier rejection and the legislative body must now vote for the previous two nominees and the new candidate, presumably during its autumn session. 

The candidates need at least 76 votes out of the 150-seat legislative body to be appointed as judges of the Supreme Court. 

Here  are additional details about the new nominee, Levan Bodzashvili: 

• He is a visiting Professor and Researcher at New York Fordham University School of Law and delivered lectures on Comparative Constitutional Law since October 2012;
• Since 2006 he has delivered lectures on Constitutional Law, European Union (EU) Legislation and Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic and Consular Law and Cyber Law at Tbilisi State University, Georgian-American University and Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA);
• In 2004-2008 Levan Bodzashvili was a member of the Venice Commission of the European Council. 
• During 2005-2009 he was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs supervising the issues related to EU and bilateral relations. He also held the position of the Director of Department of European Affairs, Deputy Permanent Representative and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Austria and to International Organisations based in Vienna; 
• During 2003-2004 Bodzashvili was the Director of the Department of International Law and State Representative at Human Rights European Court of Justice. Within 1996-1997 he was undergoing working practice at the US Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court of Georgia and the Supreme Court of Georgia at different positions.

The Supreme Court of Georgia is composed of 12 judges, who are chaired by the head of the Supreme Court of Georgia. This position is currently held by Nino Gvenetadze, who was also named by the President last year.