OSCE Mission presents publications to support judicial reform and legislative process in Georgia

TBILISI, 19 December 2007. - The OSCE Mission to Georgia is supporting judicial reform and the legislative process in the country with two new publications aimed at legal professionals. A two-volume work on the constitutions of foreign countries was presented today, while a compilation of the Georgian Supreme Court's interpretations was presented yesterday.

The fourth and fifth volumes of Constitutions of Foreign Countries were published with the support of the Lawyers for Rule of Law Union in cooperation with the Georgian Justice Ministry. The publications are aimed at legal professionals and law students and contain official, up-to-date translations of the Constitutions into Georgian.

"This is another sign of support from our Mission towards the ongoing judiciary reform in Georgia. The OSCE Mission to Georgia has provided and will continue to provide its assistance and expertise to further develop an effective mechanism for the rule of law in the country," said Ambassador Terhi Hakala, Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia.

The Rule of Law unit of the OSCE Mission also supported the second volume of the publication, Compilation of the Interpretative Norms of the Supreme Court of Georgia, which was presented yesterday. It was issued by the local non-governmental organization Union for Human Development, with support of the OSCE Mission and the American Bar Association's Rule of Law Initiative.

The compilation of the Georgian Supreme Court's interpretations of criminal, civil and administrative law will be disseminated to judges, legal institutes and libraries, as well as other legal professionals and experts. The first volume of the book was published last year.

The publications are part of a Mission project aimed at promoting establishment of a unified judicial practice in courts of general jurisdiction and transparent legislative process in Georgia.