Four former ministers of Justice referred to the many and chronic pathogens that hinder the acceleration of the legal process, in a conference organized by the “Movement for the Acceleration of Justice” and hosted at the Greek Chamber of Crafts. The current minister, Konstantinos Tsiaras, also addressed the meeting, describing the slowness in the awarding as the “biggest problem” of Justice.
Mr. Tsiaras spoke of a “distorted perception” of the independence of the Judiciary and a “panspermia of provisions”, as he stressed that more than forty bills have been passed, the last ones to speed up the administration of Justice, with scant results so far. “Many of them have proved to be relevant,” he said, acknowledging that some of them, such as the law on the pilot trial in the Council of State and the law on the new regular procedure in civil justice, were cuts. However, the full, as he said, full digitization of the system will contribute to the acceleration of the administration of Justice.
“The judiciary continues to harass the people, to hamper the country’s development effort and to allow corruption to thrive,” he said, referring to a series of measures the government has taken or intends to take, such as changing it. framework of the National School of Judges, the new Code of Courts and Judicial Officers, the new Code of Judicial Officers, the expansion and deepening of digital Justice. The goal from now on, he concluded, is the completion of digital Justice and the so-called Judicial Charter.
Pointing out that the slow pace of justice is affecting even the European Court of Justice, Evangelos Venizelos stressed that “the problem concerns all sectors and all levels of jurisdiction” with a number of negative consequences. “The common denominator is the collapse of the rule of law, legal certainty and property, which is called the stability of legal relations, while testing social peace and affecting the functioning of the economy, as well as fundamental macroeconomic and fiscal targets.” He added that “the punishment in the criminal trial becomes out of date, while the wait for both the victim and the perpetrator becomes torturous”.
To the pathogenesis in the administration of justice, Mr. Venizelos added the bureaucratic application of criminal procedure against the substance. “We must keep in mind an acceleration with quality, which guarantees and strengthens the rule of law,” he added. “Accelerating the work of the Judiciary is an institutionally necessary and imperative goal,” he concluded, noting that in this direction the assistance of the bar is necessary, which must realize that it is professionally beneficial for its members.
For Miltiadis Papaioannou, the problem of slowness in the administration of justice is related, both to the State and to the internal structure of the system. According to Mr. Papaioannou, the multiplicity, the misfortune and the total number of criminalizations complicate the judicial work. “The state does not comply with the obvious,” he said, adding that the inadequacy of the public administration should be added to the suffering. On the other hand, the poor organization of the courts exacerbates the problem. “Should the spatial planning of the courts be what it is today?” he wondered.
Charalambos Athanassiou reminded that “there is no Minister of Justice who has not introduced a bill to speed up justice, but without substantially improving the situation” to refer to a series of proposals that will help speed up the judicial process.
“A front of common sense that will clash with the small and big interests” demanded, finally, Stavros Kontonis. He pointed out that although thanks to a series of provisions, the slowness of the award in the field of administrative justice was reduced to 33%, there were many reactions during the discussion in the competent committee of the Parliament. “The dividing line is not between conservatives and progressives, nor between left and right, but between reactionaries and reformers,” he said.
In a short speech, the President of the Supreme Court, Maria Georgiou, stressed that the problem of delaying the issuance of decisions by judges, through the disciplinary procedure, must be addressed, even this means their termination by the judiciary.
The meeting was coordinated by the journalist of the Athens News Agency, Panos Tsimpoukis.
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