CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Kyriacos Scordis, Alexandros Gavrielides, Chara Pieri and Demetris Yiannakou, Scordis, Papapetrou & Co LLC
Scordis, Papapetrou & Co LLC 30 Karpenisiou Street 1077, Nicosia Cyprus
Tel: +357 22 843 000 Fax: +357 22 843 444
Email: info@scordispapapetrou.com Web: www.scordispapapetrou.com
1. General 1.1 General Characteristics of the Legal System The legal system of Cyprus is primarily based on common law with the exception of certain areas, eg, administrative and family law which are based on civil law. Generally, the legal process in Cyprus is adver- sarial and involves a combination of both written submissions and oral argument. 1.2 Court System Cyprus has a unified state court system. As from 2022, following a series of major reforms, Cyprus has enacted a three-tier court system. The first tier is made up by the District Courts which have jurisdiction to hear and try at first instance all civil and criminal cases with the exception of cases falling within the jurisdiction of the courts of specialised jurisdiction, namely the Assize Courts (which try serious criminal cases), the Employment Disputes Courts, the Rent Control Courts and the Family Courts. A Commercial Court and an Admiralty Court have been established by statute in 2022 but have not yet begun to try cases as the process of appoint- ing the judges who will serve on these courts has not been concluded. In addition, there is a
first instance Administrative Court which has exclusive jurisdiction to try recourses against administrative acts of the state, its organs and other public bodies, an International Protection Administrative Court which primarily tries appli- cations by persons seeking political asylum in Cyprus and a Military Court which has jurisdic- tion to try offenses committed by members of the armed services. The second tier is made up of the newly estab- lished Court of Appeal, which has been hearing appeals since 1 July 2023 and has criminal, civil and administrative law divisions. The third tier is made up of two separate courts, namely the Supreme Constitutional Court and the (new) Supreme Court. The Supreme Consti- tutional Court is comprised of nine judges and has jurisdiction to rule on the constitutionality of proposed legislation upon the application of the President of the Republic, to resolve con- flicts between institutions and to try at third and final instance appeals against judgments of the Court of Appeal on administrative law matters which raise novel legal issues of wider public importance or with respect to which there are conflicting judgments of the Court of Appeal. The (new) Supreme Court is comprised of seven judges and has jurisdiction to try at third and final instance appeals against judgments of the
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