Under the framework of ongoing judicial reforms, a series of public discussions related to the legislative amendments in respect to civil procedure, administrative procedure and criminal procedure legislations was organised by the PGG III Project “Support to the Justice Reform in Armenia” on 18-28 April in Yerevan in close co-operation with the Supreme Judicial Council. The public discussions served as a platform bringing together the representatives of the judiciary, representatives of the executive power, other state bodies, CSOs, advocates, international partners, and scholars.

The packages of draft laws aim at solving different issues the judicial system faces nowadays including decreasing the workload of the courts, ensuring the right to proceedings within a reasonable time, and increasing the efficiency of justice in the country.

In particular, the purpose of the draft amendments is to decrease the workload of the administrative court, to improve the effectiveness of out-of-court settlement of civil cases with small claims, to create additional prerequisites for ensuring principles of competition and procedural economy in civil proceedings. Besides, based on the issues identified in the connection to the application of the new criminal justice legislation solutions or improvement of existing legal framework are envisaged, including introduction of the institute of sentencing a person upon agreement to a fine by a written procedure which will reduce the workload of the courts. It is foreseen that around 38 % of the total number of criminal cases will be subject to this procedure.

“Support to the Justice Reform in Armenia” Project is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the framework of the Partnership for Good Governance (PGG III) and is implemented by the Council of Europe.