Transparency International Georgia recently looked at the educational background, work experience and asset declarations of 168 judges employed in the Georgian common courts system. Only judges from the Supreme Court, Tbilisi and Kutaisi Courts of Appeals, and City Courts of Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi were considered.

Information was gathered from two main sources: asset declarations submitted by judges to the Civil Service Bureau; and their resumes available at the High Council of Justice and respective court websites. It should be noted that asset declarations submitted in 2014 only cover information from the previous year - 2013. The fact that this data is publicly available should be assessed positively. Preparation of this report was made possible by the availability of this information to the public. We were also able to identify some shortcomings in the process of proactive publishing of information by the courts. In some cases, court websites did not provide complete information. Forexample, we found instances when resumes of some judges did not contain up to date information about their work experience and educational background. It should also be noted that in some cases more information was available on the High Council of Justice website than on websites of individual courts.

Information about past activities, education and property owned by judges is extremely valuable for the public, especially organizations monitoring the judicial system. This information can also be used for evaluating the qualification, experience as well as potential conflicts of interest judges might have. We believe that this data should regularly be analyzed by relevant bodies of the judiciary.

Our analysis of the obtained data revealed some important results, which, we believe, may be of interest to the public. The information presented in this report may also be useful for the judicial system, since this kind of analysis has never until now been publicly available. Therefore, Transparency International Georgia attaches great importance to the publication of this report.

The monitoring project is made possible by the generous support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of TI Georgia and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government or EWMI.