On August 29, 30, and 31, the Constitutional Court of Georgia will hold a regulatory session during which the plenum must decide whether to accept the lawsuits filed against the Russian Law on so-called Foreign Agents and whether to suspend the operation of the law until a final decision is made on the case.
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A total of four lawsuits have been filed in the Constitutional Court, requesting that several articles of the Russian Law be declared unconstitutional. The Russian Law has been challenged by the President of Georgia; 122 non-governmental and media organizations; opposition members of Parliament; Georgian News; and Studio Monitori.
Based on the plaintiffs' arguments, the controversial law, given the terminology used and various repressive mechanisms, leads to the stigmatization of civil organizations and media, hindering their activities, making it impossible to achieve their goals, and ultimately delaying or stopping their functioning altogether. The plaintiffs further argue that the disputed norms, lacking relevant criteria for identifying a legitimate goal and foreign influence, damage the social identity of the subjects and arbitrarily limit the right to free development of the individual, as protected by the Constitution of Georgia.
Additionally, the plaintiffs assert that the requirements for registration in the public register, the form of accountability, the monitoring procedure, and the measures of responsibility stipulated by the law violate the freedoms of association and expression guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia. The claimants also contend that the manner in which personal data is processed under the disputed law contradicts the formal and material requirements for the right to private life and personal communication. Furthermore, they argue that the application of obligations to legal relationships that arose and ended before the law came into force violates the principle of non-retroactivity protected by the Constitution of Georgia. Some plaintiffs also believe that the contested norms cause discrimination, placing them in an unequal position compared to non-commercial legal entities established by administrative bodies, which are funded by the state budget.
In addition, the plaintiffs argue that the adoption of the Law of Georgia On Transparency of Foreign Influence contradicts the fundamental principles of the Georgian Constitution and hinders Georgia's process of joining the European Union, thereby violating the obligation defined by Article 78 of the Constitution of Georgia.
The authors of the constitutional lawsuits are also petitioning the Constitutional Court to suspend the validity of the disputed norms until a final decision is made.
