On 12 March, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Bar Association jointly organized a roundtable discussion on the topic of "Judge and Attorney, Procedural and Non-Procedural Relations" in a videoconference format.

The Vice-President of the Supreme Court, the Chairman of the Bar Association, Presidents of the Chambers of the Supreme Court and over 30 attorneys participated in the roundtable discussions. They conducted an in-depth analysis of the bilateral procedural relations between judges and attorneys, as well as of the challenges encountered in this field.

The Vice-President of the Supreme Court, Çingiz Əsgərov, opened the conference with introductory remarks. He discussed the progressive reforms and measures for improvement in connection with the implementation of the requirements of the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 3 April 2019 "On deepening reforms in the judicial system" and positively assessed the work done towards further improving the judicial system. In addition, the Vice-President noted that In accordance with the Decree, major laws have been enacted, including the policy of humanizing punishment and expanding the provision of electronic services under quarantine conditions and the use of modern information and communication technologies and electronic administration in legal proceedings.

The Vice-President of the Supreme Court also touched upon the ethical side of the existing practice in the relationship between the judges and the attorneys and stressed its importance for the implementation of the Decree.

The Chairman of the Bar Association, Anar Baghirov, provided information about the measures taken in setting up a uniform electronic information system for attorneys based on the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan from 22 February 2018 "On additional measures for the development of the legal profession in the Republic of Azerbaijan". The Chairman also provided information on the measures taken towards integrating this system into the “Electronic Court” information system.

Later, he made proposals on how to solve the existing problems in the field of legal aid in civil cases. He also discussed the work done at preventing the non-procedural relations between judges and attorneys and the important planned measures in this regard for the future.

In addition, Anar Baghirov has voiced the collective concerns based on a survey conducted among the attorneys in the days preceding the conference and discussed some problems encountered in the daily work of the attorneys.

The event also featured the speeches by the President of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court Sanan Hajiyev on the "Procedural and Ethical Aspects of Relations between Judges and Attorneys - the Judge's View" and the Chairman of the Bar Disciplinary Commission Shahmar Mammadov on the "Procedural and Ethical Aspects of Relations between Judges and Attorneys – the Attorney’s view."

The videoconference provided a useful exchange of views on issues of mutual interest in the context of judge-attorney relations.