Impeachment of the President and the practice of the Constitutional Court of Georgia

Abstract

The article discusses the conclusion of the Constitutional Court of Georgia on the impeachment of the President. On October 16, 2023, the Constitutional Court of Georgia rendered a conclusion "On Violation of the Constitution by the President of Georgia" (case № 3/1/1797). In the practice of proceedings of the Constitutional Court, consideration of the issue of impeachment took place for the first time therefore, it has a precedential value. The present article discusses the extent to which the Constitutional Court has realized the importance of constitutional control when concluding the issue of impeachment. The article presents the essential shortcomings of evaluating the issue by the court. In particular, the article discusses the effectiveness of constitutional control, the issue of the autonomous content of the constitutional terms, the formal definition of the norms of the constitution, and the issue of the normative content and establishing the facts by the court. Three judges expressed a dissenting opinion on the mentioned conclusion. The article reviews the issues that point out the dissenting opinion. The article also scrutinizes the legal nature of the conclusion rendered by the court.