GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ilias G. Anagnostopoulos and Padelis V. Bratis, ANAGNOSTOPOULOS
5. Enforcement 5.1 Methods of Enforcement Enforcement of Civil Judgments
lated by bilateral or multilateral international treaties (eg, the Hague Convention of 1965). For practical reasons, European or international claimants who wish to acquire party status in Greek civil or criminal proceedings are advised to (also) appoint a lawyer based within the juris - diction of the competent domestic court. Extraterritorial Effect of Greek Criminal Laws Apart from offences committed within national territory, Greek criminal law has an extraterrito - rial effect in the following cases: • felonies or misdemeanours committed by nationals abroad, under the condition of dual criminality (Article 6 GCC – principle of active personality); • felonies or misdemeanours committed abroad against nationals, state entities or other enti - ties with their seat in Greece abroad, under the condition of dual criminality (Article 7 GCC – principle of passive personality); and • certain offences prescribed in Article 8 GCC, regardless of the prerequisite of dual crimi - nality according to the principle of universal jurisdiction (eg, terrorism, human trafficking, piracy, drug trafficking, etc). 4.2 Service of Proceedings out of the Jurisdiction Depending on the involved jurisdictions (eg, EU member states or third countries), different sets of rules may apply for such proceedings. Please see also 4.1 Joining Overseas Parties to Fraud Claims .
Final judgments of first-instance courts that have been issued as provisionally enforceable may be immediately enforced. A certified copy of the enforcement order, which is provided by the presiding judge of the court that issued the relevant judgment, is required in order to initi - ate the enforcement procedure (Articles 904 and 918 GCCivP). Once the order is served, enforce - ment actions may take place after three working days have passed (Article 926 GCCivP). Enforcement actions include garnishment (con - fiscation) of the defendant’s assets and real estate property and/or auction of said assets and property. Enforcement of Criminal Judgments The enforcement of criminal judgments lies with the competent prosecuting authorities of the court that issued said judgment. As a rule, only final criminal judgments are enforceable (Article 545 GCCP). However, if a defendant has been convicted of a felony or even a serious misde - meanour, the first-instance court may rule that its judgment be directly enforced, notwithstand - ing the submission of an appeal against it (Article 497 GCCP). 5.2 Enforcement of Foreign Judgments The process for the enforcement of foreign civil and criminal judgments within the Greek juris - diction is, as a rule, prescribed by relevant bilat - eral treaties and international conventions. Such proceedings are however significantly simplified among EU member states, whereby the princi - ple of mutual recognition of judicial decisions applies.
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