Successful continuation of Criminal Moot Courts in Armenia

On 24 and 25 September 2021, a Criminal Moot Court was held in Aghveran, Armenia, for the sixth time since 2016. This highly successful annual event is organised by IRZ together with the Faculty of Law at Yerevan State University. Students at Armenian universities as well as representatives of other organisations can apply to participate in this competition. The aim of the Moot Court is for participants to actively experience a court hearing through role play and thereby gain practical experience in the various legal professions. 

This year's event was opened by Anna R. Margaryan, Professor of Criminal Law and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law at Yerevan State University, and IRZ Head of Section Frank Hupfeld. Professor Margaryan then explained how the Moot Court works.

A total of ten groups of three people applied to participate in this year's court competition. The groups from the following five institutions passed the written selection tests and participated in the Moot Court:

• Yerevan State University
• Artzakh State University (Nagorno-Karabakh)
• Police Academy of the Republic of Armenia
• French University in Armenia
• Armenian-Russian University in Armenia 

During the Moot Court, each group was supervised by a trainer. For the five role plays in the first phase of the Moot Court, each group took on both the prosecutor and the defender role once. The two winning groups from the first phase competed against each other in the subsequent final competition. The participants' performances were judged by an Armenian-German jury: 

• Vazgen Rshtuni, a judge at the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Armenia
• Davit Harutjunyan, a judge at the Court of First Instance of the City of Yerevan
• Hovsep Sargsyan, a member of the Bar Association
• Dr. Arnd Weishaupt, a judge at the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf and IRZ expert

After the results of this year's court competition had been announced, there was a festive award ceremony. For once, two groups won this year's Moot Court – from the French University in Armenia and from the Yerevan State University. 

The award ceremony was attended by the above-mentioned jury members and representatives of Yerevan State University, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Gagik Ghazinyan, and his deputy, Prof. Anna Margaryan. The ceremony was also attended by a group of people who travelled especially for the occasion:

• Arman Tatoyan, Ombudsman of Armenia
• Dr Artur Israelyan, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation and Public Relations at Yerevan State University
• Elen Hakobyan, a representative from the Judicial Academy
• Armen Asatryan, a representative from the Bar Association
• Vahe Engibaryan, a representative from the Judges' Association

Their presence reflects the popularity of this series of events in Armenia.

Since the representatives of the participating institutions explicitly emphasised the importance of the moot courts in Armenia, IRZ plans to continue the series of events next year.

EU grant “Consolidation of the Justice System in Armenia”: second Steering Committee Meeting

On 12 July 2021, the second Steering Committee Meeting for the EU grant “Consolidation of the Justice System in Armenia” took place in Yerevan. IRZ has been leading this project, which aims to improve the quality of the justice system in Armenia, since June 2020, alongside the French organisation “Expertise France” and the Latvian judicial administration.

The meeting, which was held in a hybrid format, was attended by the German and Armenian project managers and those responsible for the EU delegation in Armenia, as well as representatives of key players in the Armenian justice system, including Deputy Justice Minister Kristinne Grigoryan. The aim of these regular steering meetings is to present the developments and progress of the project and to discuss them with the partners.

Once the meeting had been opened by Gonzalo Serrano de la Rosa, Head of Cooperation of the EU delegation, who emphasised the importance of the project as a central building block for EU cooperation with Armenia, team leader Peter Gjortler gave an overview of the past few months of the project, focussing in particular on the formal restructuring of the project schedule, which had taken place in consultation with the partner authorities.

Afterwards, the long-term experts Arman Zrvandyan, Gohar Hakobyan and Otilia Pacurari presented the activities carried out and the results already achieved. These include, for example, recommendations on simplifying administrative procedures, expert opinions on modernising the code of civil procedure and an analysis of standards of integrity among public prosecutors. In the area of further training, a comprehensive analysis of the existing further training system of the Judicial Academy was provided, allowing, among other things, the training methodology to be optimised and targeted curricula to be developed on this basis.

During the subsequent discussions, those involved in the project praised the successful cooperation, which was already bearing fruit. The Armenian partners were satisfied with the results achieved so far, and the success of the meeting therefore represented an important milestone for further implementation. Thanks to the establishment of the project locally, the opening of the project office in spring 2021 and, in particular, the permanent presence of foreign long-term experts in the country, the project can now be carried out under almost normal conditions despite the pandemic. The committed project team has a busy second project year ahead of them.