The organization “Young Barristers” held a round table discussing judicial shortcomings interfering the process of restoration justice with regard of property confiscations. The organization hosted leading journalists of the country working in the fields of law and economy and introduced to them the problematic issues of the cases of property confiscations observed directly in court practice. The discussion also focused on whether or not the executive, legislative and judicial powers duly cooperate with the media, when it comes to the issue of requesting public information. Besides, the discussion has also touched upon the issue of accessibility of the information about investigation being conducted in the Department of Investigation of offences Committed in the Course of Legal Proceedings (within the system of Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia). If there are any kind of barriers or obstacles for media representatives in accessing that kind of information. Beyond this, the discussion tried to figure out to what an extant the media is interested in ongoing investigations related to property confiscations, what is the rate of publications related to property confiscations and I general, how does the media evaluate implementation of promises made by the Government during the pre-election period.     

“Young Barristers” introduced to the media new legislative proposal prepared by the organization, according to which 5years statutory term for appealing to court in order to reconsider the case due to the abolishment of the court decisions and newly discovered avoidances from 5 to 15 years.  Archil Kaikatsishvili believes that this legislative proposal is real solution for those, who have lost their property and are unable to restore justice and return their property back because of the gaps in the current legislation. Mr. Kaikatsishvili noted, that legislative proposal is under consideration in the Human Rights and Civil Integration and Legal Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia and he expressed his hope, that the Parliament will pay proper attention to the discussion of the proposal during the fall session.  

Ana Kiknadze, the Senior Lawyer of the organization and the co-author of the legislative proposal spoke extensively about this initiative. According to her, paragraph 4 of the article 426 of the Civil Procedure Code should be edited. According to the current legislation, although citizens are legally entitled to appeal to the court in order to return confiscated property, yet, in most cases they face legal blind alley because of the statutes of limitations for reopening the case after abolishing it. New legislative changes will give real opportunity to the citizens, whose property had been confiscated to appeal to the court and factually have a chance to recover violated rights. Implementation of such an amendment would be a step forward to establishing justice and rule of law. The cases will be considered again, from the beginning and the court will make a new judgment on the specific individual case, rather than appealing to the principle of common approach towards those, whose property had been confiscated. The organization believes, that 15 year statute of limitation for reopening court case is a reasonable term. The proposal considers to extend term of limitation for reopening court proceeding, due to newly discovered circumstances, from 5 to 15 years. 

 “Young Barristers” notes, that political changes in 2012 has raised an issue of restoration justice, for those, whose property had been illegally confiscated and if not the 5 years term statute of limitation, existing in the legislation, many of them would have real chance to restore their rights for now.

“Young Barristers” works on the legislative proposal since March 2015. While preparing draft proposal, the organization got acquainted with Swiss, French, Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian and Estonian law in this direction and based its draft proposal on the best practice regarding the issue. We would also like to note, that this is the second legislative proposal already initiated by “Young Barristers”. We assume, that it will be possible to enforce the proposal by November, 2015.