The "Protection of Rights without Borders" NGO under the authority of lawyers Siranush Sahakyan, Arman Zrvandyan and Maria Ghulyan, implementing an administrative court monitoring program, published a report in 2011 "On some issues of administrative justice in the Republic of Armenia" (reviews of the study of legislation and law enforcement practice).
The goal of the monitoring project supported by "Open Society Foundations-Armenia" was to study the newly adopted administrative legislation and perform a comprehensive analysis of judicial practice.
17 observers worked for the program. It was implemented over 18 months and in three phases:
The preparation phase, during which the legislation was studied, questionnaires were developed, observers were selected and trained, and other organizational preparatory work was carried out.
The observation phase, during which the observers directly carried out their observations;
The phase of summarizing and publishing monitoring results, during which study, analysis, summarization and preparation of the report on collected data was carried out.
Between September 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010, 353 administrative cases with 807 hearings were conducted at the Yerevan Administrative Court. 351 of those cases were examined in ordinary court proceedings, and 2 in accelerated procedure. Of the monitored cases, 213 were finalized and formed the primary basis for analysis and conclusions.
A separate part of the project is the analysis of the current administrative legislation in order to identify inconsistencies and contradictions with international standards and best practices, as well as to improve the legal framework of administrative justice.
Along with the observation, case materials were collected from the parties and the court. Interviews were conducted with the participants of the proceedings. In this sense, monitoring results address the broader scope of the administrative justice system and contain information on: access to the court, enforcement of judicial acts, as well as case review by the Court of Cassation.
The report analyzes such issues as: access to administrative justice (chapter 1), types of claims according to the Code of Administrative Procedure of the Republic of Armenia, legislative gaps and problems in practical practice from the point of view of access to justice (chapter 2), evidence in administrative proceedings (chapter 3), free legal aid in administrative cases (Chapter 4), the right to oral and public trial of administrative cases (Chapter 5), etc.
The report also includes a number of recommendations to help the Armenian authorities develop administrative legislation and the administration of justice in line with international and national standards.
The report in its entirety: "On problems of RA administrative justice" (research notes on legislation and law-enforcement practice).