Georgia · Overview
The legal system of Georgia
A civil-law system rebuilt on German lines after independence. The Civil Code of 1997, drafted with German assistance, is unusually faithful to the pandectist structure, and German doctrine is routinely cited in commentary and judgments. Property registration was radically simplified in the 2000s reforms and the public registry is now among the fastest in the region. Georgia has an Association Agreement with the EU including a deep and comprehensive free trade area, so large parts of commercial, competition and consumer regulation are being approximated to EU law. Soviet legal structures were replaced after 1991 by civil, criminal and procedural codes drafted on continental European models, but the prokuratura survives as a powerful supervisory prosecution service with functions that go well beyond charging decisions, and notarial formality remains heavy for property and corporate acts.
Legal tradition
Georgia belongs to the civil law tradition. A civil-law system rebuilt on German lines after independence. The Civil Code of 1997, drafted with German assistance, is unusually faithful to the pandectist structure, and German doctrine is routinely cited in commentary and judgments. Property registration was radically simplified in the 2000s reforms and the public registry is now among the fastest in the region. Georgia has an Association Agreement with the EU including a deep and comprehensive free trade area, so large parts of commercial, competition and consumer regulation are being approximated to EU law. Soviet legal structures were replaced after 1991 by civil, criminal and procedural codes drafted on continental European models, but the prokuratura survives as a powerful supervisory prosecution service with functions that go well beyond charging decisions, and notarial formality remains heavy for property and corporate acts.
How power is divided
Unitary, with the Autonomous Republic of Adjara holding its own constitution and supreme council, and Abkhazia recognised in Georgian law as an autonomous republic. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are outside the effective control of the central government, and the atlas records Georgian law as it stands while noting that it is not applied there in practice.
Where law comes from
- The Constitution
- Supreme; Chapter Two rights are directly enforceable in the Constitutional Court.
- International treaties
- Rank above domestic statutes but below the Constitution.
- Organic and ordinary laws of Parliament
- Organic laws govern courts, elections and citizenship.
- The Civil Code 1997
- German-model codification; the backbone of private law.
- Decrees and ministerial orders
- Subordinate instruments; reviewable for legality.
The legal profession
Advocates are admitted by the Georgian Bar Association after a qualifying examination and hold a monopoly on representation in criminal cases and, since 2017, in cassation. The Bar is a self-governing body with its own ethics commission. Notaries are licensed and their role in property and corporate acts was deliberately narrowed during the reform decade in favour of direct electronic registration, which is why Georgian conveyancing is faster and cheaper than in most civil-law systems.
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