GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: John Dryllerakis, Claire Sergaki and Vasileios Plakoulas, Dryllerakis Law Firm
6.2 Role of Courts Interim Relief by National Courts in Arbitral Proceedings The role of national courts in granting preliminary/ interim relief in arbitral proceedings is crucial. At the outset, Article 13 of Law 5016/2023 stipulates that the arbitration agreement does not prevent the parties from requesting any competent court to order interim measures regarding the subject matter of the agree - ment, before or even after the commencement of the arbitration. Furthermore, Article 25.5 of Law 5016/2023 provides that the competent civil court will recognise and declare the interim relief and the security imposed by the arbitral tribunal as enforceable, unless such measures are contrary to international public policy or interim relief proceedings in this case have already been initiated before it. In addition, Article 25.6 of Law 5016/2023 entitles a party against whom an interim measure has been granted to seek reasonable compensation before the civil courts from the party that requested the measure if it is subsequently established that: (a) the request - ing party obtained or preserved the interim measure through acts or omissions in breach of its duty to conduct the arbitration in good faith; or (b) in light of circumstances arising after its issuance, the interim measure is ultimately considered unjustified. Lastly, under Article 36, in conjunction with Article 3.1 of Law 5016/2023, the civil courts may order manda - tory measures to assist in the taking of evidence in Greek law is silent on the use of emergency arbitra - tors. Article 25.1 of Greek Law 5016/2023 provides that the arbitral tribunal’s power to order interim or preliminary measures is a provision that the parties can opt to override. Therefore, parties may agree to opt for “emergency arbitrator” proceedings in cases of urgent interim measures that cannot wait for the con - stitution of an arbitral tribunal. This typically occurs when the parties have submitted their arbitration to the rules of an arbitral institution that include emer - gency arbitrator provisions, such as the 2020 LCIA foreign-seated arbitrations. The “Emergency Arbitrator”
Arbitration Rules, the 2026 ICC Arbitration Rules and the 2023 SCC Arbitration Rules. 6.3 Security for Costs Despite Law 5016/2023 being silent on the matter, it is accepted that arbitral tribunals may order security for costs.
7. Procedure 7.1 Governing Rules
In principle, the parties are free to agree on the proce - dure to be followed by the arbitral tribunal in conduct - ing the proceedings. As the parties have the freedom to set their own procedural rules, they may also del - egate this responsibility to an arbitral institution, as per Article 5.3 of Law 5016/2023 or follow the rules of a specific institution, such as the ICC or the LCIA. In the absence of any such agreement, the arbitral tribunal will determine the procedure in accordance with Article 27.2 of Law 5016/2023. The parties’ autonomy to decide on the procedure of the arbitration is subject to the rules of mandatory law of Law 5016/2023, which include the equal treatment principle under Article 26 and the right to be heard under Article 32. 7.2 Procedural Steps Greek law does not prescribe specific procedural steps for the conduct of international arbitral proceed - ings. These matters are determined by the parties or a third party or the arbitrators in accordance with the analysis set out in 7.1 Governing Rules . However, Law 5016/2023 includes certain default provisions that apply where the parties have not agreed on a procedural framework or have not submitted the dis - pute to the rules of an arbitral institution. These default rules of Law 5016/2023 pertain to the commencement date of the arbitral proceedings (Article 29), the dead - lines for the submission of the respondent’s statement of defence (Article 31) and the appointment, replace - ment or challenging of arbitrators (Articles 18 et seq).
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