Supreme Special Court (Greece) - Jurisdiction - The Court As The "Supreme Constitutional Court"

The Court As The "Supreme Constitutional Court"

In Greece every court controls the constitutionality of the laws and there is no "permanent" Supreme Constitutional Court, as in Spain, Germany etc. If any court judges a legal provision as "unconstitutional", it decides not to apply it, but it has not the power to declare the legal provision "null and void". This restriction is also binding for the Supreme Courts, which declare the unconstitutional legal provision "inapplicable". Nonetheless, if a case concerning the constitutionality of a law is introduced into the Supreme Special Court (after the issuing of contradictory decisions of the Supreme Courts), the Court has the constitutional right to declare an unconstitutional legal provision as "powerless". This means that the unconstitutional legal provision still exists (it is not formally "null and void"), but it is expelled from the Greek "law and order".

The decision of the Supreme Special Court, declaring the unconstitutionality of a legal provision is final, irrevocable, binding for every Greek court, including the Supreme Courts, and judges the matter once for ever. No court has the right to take a different decision for the same legal provision in the future. If a court of first instance or a court of appeals or even a Supreme Court had judged the same matter in a contradictory way before the issuing of the decision of the Supreme Special Court, it is obliged to reverse is judgement and to reissue it in accordance with the Supreme Special Court's decision.