Προτάσεις για την Αντικατάσταση των Μεταβατικών Εδρών των Πρωτοδικείων της Επικράτειας - Proposals on the replacement of the transitional seats of the Administrative Courts of First Instance in the islands and the remote land areas of Greece
Administrative courts of First Instance with transitional seats operate on a periodic basis as hearings take place only for a couple of days per month or even on a bi-monthly basis throughout the judicial year with the view to serving local needs. Transitional seats as described above operate on islands and several remote land areas of Greece.
The periodic operation of transitional seats of administrative courts of First Instance involves a recurrent cost to the state as judges and secretaries have to travel on periodic basis to islands and remote land areas with the view to participating in the hearings organised on scheduled dates. The number of Judges and secretaries that go to the islands and remote areas on a periodical basis in order to conduct the hearings is not justified by the number of cases of these courts. Apart from the financial cost of the operation of transitional seats, optimal use of human resources ("HR") is impeded by the mandatory operation of transitional seats even if few cases might be concerned.
Against this background, proposals and solutions are needed in order to reduce state expenditure resulting from the periodical operation of courts with transitional seats, while optimising the use of HR available in the judicial system.
In this vein, the Greek Ministry of Justice ("MoJ") needs a study on the possible abolition of the transitional seats and their replacement by video call procedures or their merger with the nearest larger court. Video calling for the islands and merger to the nearest largest court on the remote areas possibly should be explored.
The scope of the contract is the drafting of a study on:
- Islands issue: the abolition of transitional seats of the administrative courts of First Instance in island regions and their replacement by teleconferencing facilities.
- Remote lands issue: the abolition of the transitional seats of the remote lands and their transfer to the nearest largest court.
The study will focus on these two issues regarding the proposed categorization (Island, Remote Lands) by including proposals of using modern ICT solutions, e.g. video-conference (case 1.) and HR management methods (case2.).