The Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project is the database which constitutes a major source for assessing the state of the rule of law in different countries around the globe. The Rule of Law Index is based on the surveys of experts, general public, legal practitioners, and is a reliable source for many organizations and stakeholders.

The purpose of IDFI’s following publication is to review the indicators of the Rule of Law Index in Georgia as of 2020, to compare it to the previous years, to identify problematic directions and to show tendencies revealed as a result of the evaluation by the Rule of Law Index.

Key findings:

- According to the global Rule of Law Index of 2020, the overall score of the state of the rule of law in Georgia is 0.60 (maximum score 1). With this score Georgia is on the 42^th place among 128 countries assessed in the index. The rating of Georgia has decreased by one position and 0.01 point compared to the previous year. 

- Based on the global Rule of Law Index of 2020, Georgia scored the highest in the component of Order and Security. 

- Georgia scored the lowest in the components of Civil and Criminal Justice. Herewith, despite the high ranking of the indicator of absence of corruption, the situation in this direction has significantly worsened compared to the previous years.

- Compared to the previous years, Georgia was evaluated with lower scores in all criteria, except for Order and Security, Regulatory Enforcement and Criminal Justice. Unfortunately, among the eight criteria covered by the Rule of Law Index the situation in Georgia has not improved at all.  However, in the criteria of Order and Security, Regulatory Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Georgia more or less managed to maintain the stability of its position acquired in the previous years.

- In the criterion of Order and Security, the position of Georgia in the global rating has increased by 5 positions compared to the previous year. In the regional rating Georgia is on the 6^th place among 14 countries. Compared to the 2017-2018 years, the ranking of Georgia on the regional and global scale declined by 2 positions.

- In the criterion of Absence of Corruption over the past eight years (2012-2020) Georgia scored the lowest in 2020. Even though it is still in first place on the regional scale, the ranking of Georgia on the global scale fell by 3 positions. 

- Based on the global Rule of Law Index of 2020, Georgia scored the lowest in the indicator of the Absence of Corruption in the legislative branch.

- In terms of Protecting Fundamental Rights, the ranking of Georgia worsened by 0.01 point compared to the previous year. The right to life and security got the highest score.

- As for the Fundamental Rights, the most problematic directions in Georgia are the right to privacy and labor rights, of which the latter has considerably worsened.

- In the indicators of the Open Government, Georgia scored the highest in the directions of freedom of information and civic participation. However, compared to the previous years the situation in this regard has worsened.

- For the last five years, in the criterion of Open Government, Georgia got one of the lowest scores in 2020 and reached the level of 2017-2018. Compared to the previous year, the ranking of Georgia worsened by 2 positions on the global scale.

- In terms of Regulatory Enforcement, the ranking of Georgia has improved compared to the previous year, but it’s still below the level acquired in 2017-2018. The absence of unreasonable delays in the process of adjudication and fair administrative proceedings are considered to be highly problematic.

- As for the Constraints on Government Powers in 2020, Georgia scored 0.02 point less than in the previous years. The ranking of Georgia on the global scale decreased by 7 positions, however, it still holds the first place on the regional scale.

- All of the 6 indicators of the Constraints on Government Powers have worsened noticeably compared to the previous years.

- Compared to the previous years, the criterion of Civil Justice in Georgia was evaluated with the lowest score in 2020. The most problematic direction is the unreasonable delay of proceedings. The ranking of Georgia on the regional scale worsened and moved from the first (the ranking of 2015) to the 6^th place.

- The criterion of Criminal Justice is evaluated with the lowest score compared to the other criteria, but the situation has not worsened in this regard compared to the previous years. For the last six years, the noted criterion steadily gets low assessments.

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This material has been financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. Responsibility for the content rests entirely with the creator. Sida does not necessarily share the expressed views and interpretations.