It became known today that the plenary session of the Supreme Court is scheduled for May 29th, 2020, and the only issue on the agenda is the appointment of a member of the Constitutional Court on the position1. He/she has to fill a vacancy that arises on June 15th, when the current term of office for the current Chairperson of the Constitutional Court expires.
In the near past, Plenum of the Constitutional Court appointed a judge using a completely non-transparent procedure 2. Even the members of the Plenum themselves did not know the identity of the candidate in advance3. Regrettably, this move has hurt the credibility of the Constitutional Court. Given this negative experience, GYLA calls on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Plenum not to appoint a judge of the Constitutional Court on May 29th and use this session only to nominate a candidate.
This step will raise the standard of transparency of the court, allow the public to express their position on the candidacy, and help the plenum to make an informed decision.
1Session of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Georgia, the agenda, the website of the Supreme Court is available at: https://bit.ly/2zB4id2, updated 27.05.2020.
2 GYLA negatively assesses the appointment of a member of the Constitutional Court by the Plenum of the Supreme Court. April 3, 2020, GYLA's website is available at: https://bit.ly/2xT9Kap, updated: 27.05.2020.
3Statement of the Supreme Court Justice Ekaterine Gasitashvili at the Discussion "Staffing of the Constitutional Court", 1: 37: 40-1: 40: 50 min, available at: https://bit.ly/2ZHQWGE, updated 27.05.2020.