Judicial and legal reforms are one of the most problematic issues in Armenia today. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said when he was asked which stage the necessary legislative and particularly judicial and legal reforms for promotion of investments are in during the year-end meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia.

“This is one of the most problematic issues in Armenia today. Moreover, this is not just a matter of independence of the judiciary. When we took a look at the banking system, we recorded a very strange fact — nearly AMD 300,000,000,000 is frozen in the banking system, and there is a formal dispute over 150,000,000,000, but the court dispute doesn’t exist de facto. This means that the takers and receivers accept the fact that they have to take or receive the money, but since this has to undergo a court procedure, the funds can’t be transferred without a court verdict. This is due to the problem with reforms in the judiciary. When we explore the practices of many countries, we see that there have been cases when judicial reforms have led to collapse. We complain that trials last for months, but there have been cases when de facto courts haven’t existed. I will tell you directly that I am not satisfied. Here the most important thing is to be patient and consistent so that we achieve a result at the institutional level,” Pashinyan said.