Three non-judges to join Ethics and Disciplinary Commission 

ArmInfo.  The Ethics and Disciplinary Affairs Committee of the General Assembly of Judges of Armenia will be expanded by three more non-judge members. The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia will discuss amendments to the Judicial Code in the first reading at its plenary session on  January 20.

According to Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia  Tigran Dadunts, two of the eight members of the committee are  currently non-judges. According to the Venice Commission, this has or  may have an impact on the decision-making process regarding  disciplinary proceedings against judges and creates so-called  corporatism. According to statistics, in 2024, 583 applications were  submitted to the committee regarding disciplinary proceedings against  judges, 183 of which were reviewed, resulting in nine cases being  initiated, and two more cases were referred to the Supreme Judicial  Council for review.

A similar situation was observed in 2023. Of the 652 applications,  288 were reviewed as reports, 13 initiated proceedings, and only one  was referred to the Supreme Judicial Council for mediation. According  to Tigran Dadunts, increasing the number of non-judicial commission  members will have a positive impact on improving these statistics,  initiating disciplinary proceedings, and reconsidering the situation  from a substantive perspective. It is proposed to increase the number  of non-judicial members by three. In this case, the commission will  consist of six judges and five non-judicial members.

The next amendment, in order to improve the effectiveness of  non-judicial members' participation and strengthen their decisive  influence in initiating or resolving disciplinary proceedings,  proposes changing the quorum ratio and the decision-making procedure  at the meeting. Specifically, at the initial stage of initiating  proceedings, it is proposed to stipulate that a decision can be made  by one-third of the votes cast, so that the voice of non-judicial  members is more audible. This means that a decision can be made by  four of the seven members. Then, once the proceedings have commenced,  all the circumstances have been clarified, additional information has  been obtained, and the decision to submit an application to the  General Assembly of Judges has arrived. The decision will be made by  a majority vote of the members.  The next amendment revises the  requirements for non-judge candidate members and clarifies the rules  of their conduct.