Your trusted source

The Armenian National Assembly Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs held a sitting on Wednesday, with a bill calling for changes to the Judicial Code on the agenda.

Presenting the draft law, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan said it proposes to eliminate the regulations on a specialized anti-corruption court of appeals and leave the consideration of cases to six separate judges of the civil and criminal courts of appeals.

“This means an anti-corruption court will be established, but there will be only two teams, which will specialize in the hearing of those cases. The number of judges of the anti-corruption court was also reduced; it is now set to consist of at least 15 judges, at least 10 of whom will hear cases concerning corruption crimes and at least 5 – civil lawsuits against corruption,” he noted.

Rustam Badasyan said that the regulations on increasing the number of judges of the Civil and Administrative Chamber of the Court of Cassation were removed from the bill, taking into account the fact that in the near future the government will come up with a separate initiative on the matter.

“It particularly refers to the establishment of an administrative chamber in the Court of Cassation. After its creation, the composition of the Civil Chamber will be more than enough to hear civil cases, and this draft law has already been submitted for public discussion. The specifics of distribution of cases between individual judges in civil and criminal appellate courts, as well as the regulations on determining the percentage of reduction based on the rule of equitable distribution, have also been determined,” the minister said.

He also added that the mandatory requirement to check the integrity of candidates for judges of the Court of Appeals was removed from the draft law, and in this context, the transitional provisions of the bill were completely revised.

“A provision has been added to the law “On the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly”, which proposes to supplement the requirements for judges with the presentation of an advisory opinion on integrity issued by the Corruption Prevention Commission,” Badasyan noted.