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On April 16 of 2011 the second working meeting within the framework of “Case law in the Process of Justice Implementation” project was held at the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office.

The goal of the discussion was to report the initial summaries of the court cases initiated by HCA Vanadzor and discuss the results with the project specialists and advocates in order to identify the current weaknesses. The working discussion was attended by the project advocates, lawyers, as well as HCA- Vanadzor staff members. Issues regarding technical and theoretical features of summaries of court cases from criminal, civil, and administrative spheres (one from each sphere) were discussed.

The summaries were basically comprised of the following components:

The following structure was pertinent to criminal court cases.
•    Case background
•    Description of the violation
•    Case trial at Court of First Instance
•    Legal uniqueness of the case
•    Case trial at Court of Appeals
•    Case trial at Court of Cassation
•    The impact of cases that yielded changes in the practical application of legal measures

The administrative cases had the following structure:
•    Case background
•    Description of the violation
•    Legal evaluations
•    Case trial at Court of First Instance
•    Legal uniqueness of the case
•    The impact of cases that yielded changes in the practical application of legal measures

According to Artak Zeynalyan, “The analysis of the case appears to matter more than the reiteration of the case content and its verdict”. In some of the cases, the target issue stayed unidentified. In the section of comments it must be noted that even though the issue wasn’t identified, nevertheless, it will be elucidated and finalized.

During the second segment of the discussion, the project advocate presented possible projects of strategic litigation within the framework of legal consultations.

The first criminal case related to the violation of Rights of Citizens to freedom of movement, peaceful assemblies and associations, as they were traveling from regions to participate in the rally held in Yerevan.

The second case dealt with the violation of the rights to property of Shirak border guards.  In 2005, unknown individuals illegally crossed the RA border and moved 57 cattle to Turkey.

The third case dealt with the practice of conducting searches without relevant court decisions.

It should be noted that the project is implemented within the framework of the grant funded by Counterpart International.