In May 1988, after returning from two-year military service, I went to university and witnessed an incredible scene. In the middle of a student demonstration, held in the yard of the first building of university, were Dato Turashvili and his friends. These philologists and historians were discussing the problems relating to the Gareja Monastery Complex, while the law students from my faculty were forming cordon and maintaining order, wearing red armbands! The legal educational system of Georgia was stubbornly continuing to produce the workers of the state’s repressive machine. In this context, while attending a scientific conference in Riga, my astonishment had no limits, when we found out that the best Latvian students were already dreaming of becoming defense lawyers instead of becoming prosecutors, while the professors were assigning coursework about the legal issues of an independent Latvia.
However, soon the traces of freedom had appeared in the Georgian law faculty as well. In November 1988, the law students joined the hunger-strikers in front of the Government building, along with Lado Sanikidze. The dean’s office and the party committee had condemned the conduct as ‘dishonorable for a lawyer’s dignity’. In response, a few students had left the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, together with Roin Migriauli. In the same year, the law students had ‘frivolously’ traveled to help the victims of the Spitak earthquake, together with Gigla Agulashvili. The outspoken articles of law students - including those of Zaza Namoradze, had started to appear in the newspaper “Literaturuli Sakartvelo” (in Georgian, “Literary Georgia”). During the boom of the creation of informal organizations in the country, 10-12 students created the Club of Young Lawyers, with the participation of Lia Mukhashavria and Zaza Rukhadze. Under the leadership of Nino Gvenetadze, the students started arranging a library of the legal faculty. Sergo Dzagnidze and Beso Morchiladze obtained permission from the rector’s office to use a basement area - which had formerly provided storage for chemical substances, - as a gathering place for students. With the participation of Koba Davitashvili and Valeri Khaburdzania, the Club of Lawyers prepared the new edition of the constitution of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia. The students responded to the address of the organization “DAS” (“Demokratiuli Archevani Sakartvelostvis” – Georgian: “the Democratic Choice for Georgia”) and under the leadership of Levan Aleksidze, Avto Demetrashvili and Lado Chanturia, started working on electoral legislation. The largest share of the legal work for preparing and conducting the first elections fell on the shoulders of the Young Lawyers.
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