Criminal
The 1999 Criminal Code with jury trial for the gravest offences
The Criminal Code of 1999 and the Criminal Procedure Code of 2009 govern criminal justice. The 2009 procedure code introduced an adversarial model unusual for a civil law country, including jury trials for the most serious offences and a formal plea bargaining regime.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National, subject to the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Governing law
- Criminal Code of Georgia1999, as amended
- Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia (2009) — adversarial procedure, juries, plea agreements
In practice
The 2009 Criminal Procedure Code was a deliberate move away from the inquisitorial Soviet inheritance towards an adversarial contest between prosecution and defence, with the judge as umpire. Jury trials were introduced for a narrow set of the gravest offences, making Georgia one of very few civil law jurisdictions with lay juries in criminal cases. Plea agreements resolve a large majority of prosecutions, which has drawn criticism about pressure on defendants. The death penalty was abolished in 1997. Pre-trial detention is capped at nine months by the Constitution, a hard limit that shapes investigative practice.