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Georgia The Judicial System
When Georgia was part of the Soviet Union, the Supreme Court
of Georgia was subordinate to the Supreme Court of the Soviet
Union, and the rule of law in Georgia, still based largely on the
Soviet constitution, included the same limitations on personal
rights. Beginning in 1990, the court system of Georgia began a
major transition toward establishment of an independent judiciary
that would replace the powerless rubber-stamp courts of the
Soviet period. The first steps, taken in late 1990, were to
forbid Supreme Court judges from holding communist party
membership and to remove Supreme Court activities from the
supervision of the party. After the overthrow of Gamsakhurdia,
the pre-Soviet constitution of 1921 was restored, providing the
legal basis for separation of powers and an independent court.
Substantial opposition to actual independence was centered in the
Cabinet of Ministers, however, some of whose members would lose
de facto judicial power.
Data as of March 1994
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