International Journal of Law

The Constitution of Georgia defines two main grounds for impeachment of the President: “violation of the Constitution” and “if his/her actions contain elements of crime”. The power of the President in Georgia is essentially limited by the Constitution by means of consent, recommendations and countersigning of Government and Prime-Minister. In Georgia, there’s not any normative act which contains legal sanction (penalty) for the violation of the Constitution. So, Impeachment proceedings in Georgia is political in nature, because violation of constitution as ground of impeachment actually does not cause an imposing of legal responsibility, for the action, which hardly holds all signs of offence. Beside this, the President, elected by the people may be removed from by the Parliament in violation of the principle of people’s sovereignty and is derived from the right to apply to the court for protection of his/her rights, granted to every citizen of Georgia by the Constitution.

As to existence of elements of crime – there are two issues, concerning the conclusion of the Constitutional Court, which is not authorized to qualify an action as a crime and mismatch of the moment of impeachment and making of decision on the relevant criminal investigation which theoretically may not confirm commitment of crime by already removed President. Article offers special procedures to resolve above mentioned issues, inter alia by involvement in the investigation of special prosecutor from abroad.