The justice system in Greece is an obstacle to economic development due to the delays in the administration of justice in courts, George Pagoulatos, Professor of European Politics and Economy at the Athens University of Economics & Business, noted on Friday at the 10th Annual Conference of “Transparency International-Greece”, titled “Why Institutions Do Not Function?”
Pagoulatos stressed Greece needs “institutional, constitutional guarantees, stronger and more lasting than the morals of public officials, independent, supra-party, judicial and regulatory authorities”.
“We need the surrounding guarantees of a functioning pluralism and liberal constitutionalism […] Everywhere in the modern world, these safeguards protect against the arbitrariness of state power, which tends to manipulate, interfere, control, and tamper with the independence of Justice.”
He referred to the long delays in legal procedures which affect the protection of rights. Specifically on commercial and civil cases, Greece has a record of pending cases, which leads to just 80 percent of those cases being heard in court, he explained.
Pagoulatos cited figures to show that in Greece, the judicial system is an obstacle to economic development, noting that in the World Bank’s “Enforcing Contracts” indicator (the application of contracts, resolution of trade disputes in courts), the country is penultimate.
On his side, Angelos Syrigos, Associate Professor of International Law & Foreign Policy at the Panteion University and Vice-President of Transparency’s Greek chapter, underlined the state has contradictory laws. He offered a number of examples where the unregulated status on a number of issues essentially creates legal contradictions or other cases where a gap is created due to uncoordinated legal functions.
According to him, in order for the judiciary to be independent, the choice of its leadership should – among other things – be disconnected from the government, as “the most vulnerable judges” are those aspiring for the positions in top courts. He also mentioned the law on the criminal liability of ministers which he said works in such a way as to effectively exclude judicial investigation.
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Photo Source: areiospagos.gr
Source: ANA-MPA
