Tea Tsulukiani

Tea Tsulukiani
Tea Tsulukiani in 2012
Minister of Justice
Incumbent
Assumed office October 25, 2012
Preceded by	Zurab Adeishvili
Personal details
Born	(1975-01-21) January 21, 1975 Tbilisi, Georgian SSR
Alma mater	École nationale d'administration
Website	Ministry of Justice of Georgia

Tea Tsulukiani (Georgian: თეა წულუკიანი; born January 21, 1975) is a Georgian politician who became Minister of Justice of Georgia in the cabinet of Bidzina Ivanishvili on October 25, 2012.

Education

Tsulukiani was born in Tbilisi, then-Soviet Georgia, in 1975 into the family of the jurist Avtandil Tsulukiani. She graduated from the Collège-lycée Ampère in Lyon, France, with the undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Education in 1992 and, that year, continued her education simultaneously at the Tbilisi State University and Academy of Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, which she graduated, respectively, in 1997 and 1998. In 2000, she obtained a Master of Public Administration from the École nationale d'administration in Strasbourg, France.^[1] This is the international version "Le Cycle International" where you study between 8 and 16 months.^[2] This Master have nothing at all to do with a law degree in France since this is an entirely different exam. ENA have no right to grant any kind of diploma for law students. They are in general educated at Panthéon-Assas University and at higher levels they are educated at French National School for the Judiciary in Bordeaux. Prospective judges and public prosecutors must complete a Bachelor in Law (which requires three years of study) and a Master in Law (which requires two years of study) before entering the French National School for the Judiciary.

Early career

During her studies, Tsulukiani worked for the Foreign Policy Research and Analysis Center at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia from 1997 and 1998 and for the Cabinet of Prefect of the Department of Sarthe, France, from 1998 to 2000. From September 2000 to February 2010, she was employed by the European Court of Human Rights in the position of a lawyer. Her primary duty was to examine, analyze and to make decision for the lawsuits coming from Georgia and partly from Russia or France.^[1]

Political career

In May 2010, Tsulukiani joined the opposition party Our Georgia – Free Democrats established by Irakli Alasania, Georgia's former U.N. envoy. In the October 2012 parliamentary election, she ran for Tbilisi's Nadzaladevi consistuency and won a seat on a ticket of Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition, of which her party was a member. On October 25, 2012, she was appointed Minister of Justice of Georgia in the cabinet formed by Ivanishvili.^[1][3] The beginning of her tenure was marked by arrests of several officials from the previous government. In February 2013, Tsulukiani visited the United States amid concern by the Western diplomats that the new government of Ivanishvili was using the justice system to settle political scores.^[4]

In March 2013, members of the former ruling United National Movement (UNM) raised an issue of Tsulukiani's education, claiming she did not fit her office as she lacked a legal education background. The Georgian law has it that only a person with a degree in law may hold the office of Minister of Justice.^[5] The scandal quickly dwindled after Tsulukiani pretended that she possessed a legal diploma even though she had only a Master of Public Administration diploma that is unrelated to a law degree.^[6] A UNM member, Tinatin Bokuchava, also claimed Tsulukiani was continued to be advised by her father, who, serving as a judge from 1991 to 1997, had allegedly issued 20 death penalties.^[7]

References