Venice Commission Looking into Georgia’s Controversial Bill on Constitutional Court

Council of Europe’s advisory body for legal affairs, Venice Commission, is expected to release its preliminary opinion over Georgia’s controversial bill on Constitutional Court on May 27, Georgian President’s adviser for legal and human rights affairs, said.

Kakha Kozhoridze told Georgian journalists in Strasbourg after meeting representatives from the Venice Commission on May 24 that the bill “poses serious risks to smooth functioning of the Constitutional Court.”

The bill increasing the quorum required for the Constitutional Court to decide cases was rushed through the Parliament by the GDDG ruling party adopting it with its third and final reading on May 14.

Kozhoridze also said that the President has objections over the bill and the Venice Commission’s opinion will help him in deciding whether to veto it or not. Deadline for the President to either sign the bill into law or to veto it will expire on June 3, according to the parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili.

The Venice Commission said on May 20 that it received two requests from Georgia for an opinion – one from the President’s Office and the other from the Parliament.

“In view of the urgency of the matter, the President [Giorgi Margvelashvili] requested an opinion to be prepared within 10 days,” the Venice Commission said.

On May 24 it also said that in frames of preparation of an opinion on the bill, along with the meeting with the President’s representatives, information would also be provided from the Georgian Justice Ministry and the Parliament’s human rights committee via Skype on the following day.

Although chairperson of the human rights committee and co-sponsor of the bill, GDDG MP Eka Beselia, apparently told co-rapporteurs from the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) when they visited Tbilisi earlier this month that the bill would have been sent to the Venice Commission before its adoption, the ruling GDDG party went ahead and passed the bill and sent it to the Venice Commission only after its adoption by the Parliament.

The monitoring co-rapporteurs for Georgia from the PACE expressed “regret at the hasty adoption in final reading” of the bill without it being first sent to the Venice Commission for review.

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