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EDITOR NOTE
For the last three years I have the honor to represent Greece to the Council
of Europe’s body “Commission Européenne pour l' EfÀcacité de la Justice
(CEPEJ)”, which has as main task the process and study of proposals, regarding
the improvement of the judicial systems in the Member States.
In this context CEPEJ publishes biennially statistics about the performance of
justice in all Member States. Also working groups, established by the General
Assembly of the organization, are drawing texts containing guidelines and
recommendations, which form the basis for shaping public policies and best
practices for the Member States to this end. Recently CEPEJ began a new
cooperation with the European Commission in order to input with data the
Justice Scoreboard, which constitutes the annual European Union’s report on
the judicial systems of the Member States and on their degree of effectiveness.
This booklet aims to present in our country texts written by CEPEJ and by
the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE), which also belongs to
the Council of Europe. In our country the existence of these organizations
is almost unknown, as unknown is the wide debate at European level for
the reform of the judicial systems. I hope that these texts, which introduce
innovative proposals for substantive reforms to the justice system, regarding
the distribution of courts in a country, the construction of judicial buildings and
the management of judicial time (judicial management), be the occasion to
launch a public debate in Greece, concerning the adoption of actually radical
measures for the improvement of our justice system not only at institutional
level but also by setting up best practices.
The translation of these texts was kindly provided by judges and prosecutors,
who they are already experts of the CEPEJ and under that capacity, they
participate in missions of this organization in countries seeking cooperation to
improve their judicial systems. In particular I would like to thank the Associate
Councilor of State B. Androulakis, the President of the Administrative Court
of First Instance of Thessaloniki I. Lampiri, the Public Prosecutor of the Court
of First Instance of Thessaloniki L. Tsogkas, the Judge of the Court of First
Instance of Thessaloniki P. Alikakos and the Judge of the Administrative Court
of First Instance of Thessaloniki A. Kakavakidou, without the assistance of
whom, the issue of this booklet would not be possible.
I would also like to thank EÀ Papadopoulou, emeritus Judge of the Supreme
Court of Cyprus and already President of the Tenders Review Authority,