Launching a new journal in a global environment with the prevailing perception of academic overpublishing is a daring step. The group of people behind this initiative has nonetheless decided to publish this journal. Let us explain our reasons. The very name we chose for this journal is quite telling. While the density of the market for academic publications in Europe increasingly pushes new journals to be narrower in their scope (and correspondingly, in their titles), it was a nice surprise for us to discover that such a generic and apposite title as Georgian Law Journal was still available in Georgia. There are, of course, general law journals published in Georgia. Yet, only a handful of them are peer reviewed in some manner, which gave us further incentive. We believe that the culture of peer reviewing is one of the foremost and essential elements for controlling the quality of academic publications. It fosters critical dialogue within a community of persons interested in a particular subject and we envision room for further improvements in this regard in the field of law in Georgia. With all due respect to the existing legal periodicals, it is not an overstatement to say that an opportunity to publish on a legally relevant topic in a blind peer review journal in Georgia is almost non-existent. On the other hand, the existence of such an opportunity is an essential part of any meaningful discourse on law, the backbone of a modern democratic society. By providing such opportunities, we hope to assist this discourse and – by extension – make our humble contribution to the strengthening of the rule of law and democracy in Georgia. This initiative would not have been possible without the very strong effort from the Georgian-Norwegian Rule of Law Association and the generous financial assistance offered by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By sponsoring this publication, Norway continues its highly committed support to the rule of law and democracy worldwide and, as usual, does so with endearing humility of seeking no credit for that. We are therefore especially keen to highlight our deep appreciation for this support. The role of Norway in this initiative extends beyond finances. Half of our editorial board is comprised of Norwegian lawyers with solid practical and academic backgrounds. While the legal cultures of Norway and Georgia may initially seem too distant to expect any helpful input from the lawyers of one country in the legal discourse on the other, this is far from what we are hoping to achieve. Legal culture and legal education in Georgia are still based on highly formalistic, pre-Hartian positivist foundations. Conversely, Norway, as one of the Nordic countries, was central to the emergence of more sociologically grounded jurisprudence, named subsequently as Scandinavian Legal Realism. Without aiming to oppose the two legal traditions categorically, we think that our journal, with its editorial policy shaped by Norwegian lawyers, will make a novel and richer contribution to the legal discourse in Georgia.