GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Vassilios Moussas, Charalampos Kondis, Christina Grigoriadou and Konstantina Margariti, Moussas & Partners
Moussas & Partners 11 Marinou Antypa Street Olympic Stadium Area N. Iraklio 141 21 Athens Greece Tel: +30 210 339 2070 Email: info@moussaspartners.gr Web: www.moussaspartners.gr
1. General 1.1 General Characteristics of the Legal System Greece is a civil law jurisdiction. Laws are promulgated by the legislature and, under lim- ited circumstances, by the executive. They take the form of statutes, codes, acts, presidential decrees or other statutes and constitute the sources of statutory law ( jus positivus ). Addi- tional sources are “the generally accepted rules of international law”, international treaties rati- fied by law and EU law (primary and second- ary) that supersede national laws. Custom is of limited use. Greek courts do not have law-making powers and are not bound by judicial precedents. How- ever, in general, courts adhere to established case law and especially to the judgments of the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court ( Areios Pagos , or the “Supreme Court”) – as well as to Supreme Administrative Court ( Conseil d’ Etat, the “Coun - cil of State”) judgments, which dominate the decision-making processes of lower courts. Civil courts adopt an adversarial model, where- as criminal courts follow an inquisitorial one. Administrative courts adopt a mixture of the two.
The 2015 reform of the Greek Code of Civil Pro- cedure (GCCP) has shifted the court’s empha- sis towards written submissions in the majority of proceedings in order to expedite procedures in first and second instance courts. Significant amendments were also introduced by Law 4842/2021 and Law 5016/2023 (hereinafter “International Arbitration Law” or “IAL”). The most recent reform is the amendment of certain provisions of the GCCP with Law 5108/2024 and Law 5134/2024. The amendments mainly concern jurisdictional issues, with the principal alteration being the consolidation of the first instance jurisdiction by the abolishment of the small claims courts. The new framework of the GCCP is effective as of 16 September 2024. From this date onwards, in addition to the cen- tral seats of courts of first instance there are also parallel seats and regional seats of courts of first instance. An exception is temporarily introduced with respect to the regional seats of the Athens and Piraeus courts of first instance, the subject- matter jurisdiction of which is restricted until 15 September 2026 to the subject-matter jurisdic- tion of the former Small Claim Courts. How- ever, from 16 September 2026 onwards the full subject-matter jurisdiction over the cases of the single-member courts of first instance shall also extend to these regional seats. Furthermore,
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