YEREVAN. – Five students received prizes and certificates in the scopes of “How to Reform the Constitution?” national student competition organized on the initiative of AM law firm (photos).
“Our firm has always been guided by the principle of providing high participation in the important public events. From this perspective the involvement of legal community in such important process as the constitutional reform discussion is rather significant. Regardless of their political positions, the legal experts shall define and present the problems to the public. Therefore, we consider it important to make the voice of the students heard,”said Grigor Minasyan, the Managing Partner of AM law firm, during the award ceremony of the competition.
According to him, the aim of this competition was to understand how the Constitution should be in order for the life in the country to be more prosperous, the laws more protected; the governance of the state and the political processes to be more effective.
“The interest in the competition was rather high: several dozens of students from various universities participated in the competition. Thus, they will have their contribution in the development of our state,”said Grigor Minasyan.
He also informed that preliminary three awards were to be provided however the applications turned out to be very interesting and thus five awards were provided. The winners received computers and other presents. They were also granted the opportunity to work for three months in the leading law firm.
The Minister of Justice Hovhannes Manukyan who was present at the Award ceremony of the competition mentioned in his speech that the constitutional reforms were of emotional importance for him since back then as a young expert he had participated in the drafting process of the First Constitution and its further reforms.
“That is why this process is of big importance for me as I am one of those people who participated
in the birth of the Constitution. In the political sphere currently there are discussions on whether the Constitutional reforms are timely or not. The Constitution being the document defining the primary institutes and principles of our country and the society shall be an alive and constantly evolving organism. As all the laws the primary laws can also evolve along with the development of the society. Today we have an opportunity push forward the development of the society as a result of constitutional reforms and not wait for the need for changing the laws and the primary law arise as an outcome of the development of social processes, instead we must reform those institutes so as to make the life of the society prosperous and advance it. I think we have no right to miss that opportunity”, the Minister mentioned.
The Minister of Justice also stressed the importance of private sector involvement in the discussions on the constitutional reforms, pointing out that AM law firm considered it important to organize the competition among students: “This testifies that there is public involvement in the process and it will result in better quality. The active involved of civil society in our country is essential and we are going to continue like this.”
According to the member of the Specialized Commission for Constitutional Amendments Gevorg Danielyan the students expressed their opinions on the constitutional reforms during the competition and those will be thoroughly reviewed.
“It is welcoming that gradually the involvement of legal experts in drafting legal documents is rising which makes the process much more effective. The suggestions of the students refer not only directly to the Concept, but also to the Draft of the Constitution. If the suggestions are considered acceptable with certain restrictions, we will inform accordingly and discuss them.”
It should be mentioned that almost a month ago AM law firm had announced a competition for the young legal scholars to present their comments and suggestions on the Concept Paper on RA Constitutional Amendments on a competitive basis.
