GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Anastasios Virvilios, Evangelia Sgountzou and Eirini Tsalapati, Machas & Partners
1. Jurisdiction 1.1 General Rules or Specific Regimes? There are specific rules and principles govern - ing the procedure for the exercising of remedies (and any subsequent appeals) against decisions issued by the administration. Specifically, in the Greek procedural system of administrative justice, a rule of one-time exer - cise of remedies and appeals applies. In addi - tion, administrative proceedings are governed by the principle: • of the free disposition of the subject matter of the court proceedings; • of a court ruling within the limits of the appli - cation; • that the court proceedings may be terminated on the motion of the party lodging the appeal, whereby the court must ensure the proper conduct of the proceedings; • of written preliminary proceedings; • of oral argument in the proceedings; • of the statement of the grounds for court decisions; • of equality of the opposing parties; • that both parties must be heard; and • of the bona fide conduct of proceedings. However, in addition to these general principles, there are also special rules governing the judicial review of administrative decisions, which relate to distinguishing administrative disputes in terms of disputes for the annulment of administrative decisions and disputes of substance challenging administrative decisions on their merits. • of interrogation; • of concentration; • of public disclosure;
In particular, according to the approach that cor - responds most closely to the provisions of Greek law, the main criterion for distinguishing admin - istrative disputes into annulment and substan - tive disputes are: • the authority of the court to adjudicate the dispute submitted before it (ie, the extent of the review of the facts of the dispute which the court may or is obliged to undertake); and • the consequences of its decision. In annulment proceedings the court may annul the contested act/decision taken by the admin - istration in whole or in part, while in substantive proceedings the court may annul or even modify the contested act/decision. As a result of this distinction, there are two pro - cedural systems, in the sense that the adjudica - tion of annulment proceedings and substantive proceedings are governed by separate proce - dural provisions. 1.2 Forum for Judicial Review According to Article 94(1) of the Constitution, administrative disputes are referred to the Council of State and the ordinary administrative courts, as provided by law, without prejudice to the powers of the Court of Audit. As a general rule, annulment disputes are heard by the Council of State. However, by express constitutional provision, certain categories of cases that fall under the competence of the Council of State to annul may, depending on their nature or importance, be referred to the ordi - nary administrative courts, by law. The Council of State will hear cases at second instance, as provided by law.
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