Registration REQUIRED by 12pm on October 10, 2025 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Harriman Institute and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights for an event with Nazibrola Janezashvili. Moderated by Julie George.
Over the last decade, the judiciary in Georgia has transformed from a backstage institution into a powerful and active player in the country’s political process. Rather than dismantling the entrenched judicial power networks built over time, the Georgian Dream party has preserved and expanded them, turning the courts into reliable instruments for maintaining political control. Judicial council and judges have not just followed politics, they’ve shaped it.
How did the judiciary become such a dominant force in Georgia’s political landscape? How did the judiciary become such a central actor in Georgia’s political process? When did legal institutions cross the line between judging and managing outcomes? And what effect has this had on democratic development, EU integration, and public trust?
This talk will explore how informal influence, formal reforms, and political motivations have come together to shape a judiciary that no longer simply delivers justice, but actively helps decide who holds power and who is marginalized. Drawing on recent politically motivated cases and wider trends, it will be examined what happens when courts stop acting as neutral referees and instead become players in the political arena.
Nazibrola Janezashvili, Ph.D. is a judicial expert, legal scholar, and human rights advocate with more than 20 years of experience advancing rule of law and democratic reforms. She earned her doctorate in law from Caucasus University, with a dissertation on sexual crimes against women. She authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles, policy papers, and research reports on judicial independence, women’s rights, and European integration. Her expertise has been recognized internationally, with citations in European Court of Human Rights judgments and inclusion in leading academic and policy debates.
Dr. Janezashvili served as a Non-Judge Member of Georgia’s High Council of Justice (2017–2021), where she worked to promote merit-based judicial appointments and strengthen accountability in the judiciary. She is the founder and director of Georgian Court Watch, a pioneering initiative that engaged citizens in court monitoring and drives national debates on judicial accountability.
She has been awarded prestigious international fellowships, including the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship at American University in Washington, D.C., and the Lane Kirkland Scholarship in Poland. In 2009, she joined Columbia University’s Human Rights Advocates Program, enhancing her expertise in international human rights advocacy and leadership.
