Law to speed up justice slowed it down

An attempt to speed up the administration of justice by parliament’s amendment of laws in 2008 has boomeranged, justice minister Ionas Nicolaou said on Tuesday.

Addressing an event for European Justice Day at the Supreme court entitled The Right of Appeal, the minister said the law, which brought back the right to appeal civil decisions, both final and interim, without exceptions or limitations had the reverse effect.

“The European Court of Human Rights, through its decisions, states that the right of access to the courts is not absolute, but may be subject to restrictions that may reasonably exist, or to pursue a legitimate aim or serve proportionality,” Nicolaou said.
Cyprus had developed extensive case law in relation to the right to appeal interim decisions following a decision on the Charous case in 2003.

“The House of Representatives, considering the decision in the Charous case had significantly limited the right of appeal for interim decisions, calling on all stakeholders to discuss the issue in an attempt to strike the right balance between the two different approaches,” the minister said.

Nicolaou went on to explain that the failure to strike a balance regarding the right of appeal for interim decisions led the House in 2008 to amend the Courts of Justice Law which eventually worked against the swift administration of justice.

According to the Nicolaou, a bill introduced by the government to the House, keeping in mind the Charous decision while providing for the amendment of a subsection of the law, defining the right to appeal interim decisions, was still pending.

Nicolaou said efforts were being made by the cooperation between the justice ministry, the supreme court and the bar for amendment of subsections of the law in connection with review procedures and unnecessary processes for the purpose of speeding up the trial of cases.

President of the Supreme Court Myron Nikolatos in his address the said that in Cyprus the increasingly rapid rise in the number of appeals and the modest changes in the way the courts worked was leading to a gradual increase in the litigation times of appeals, currently around five years for civil cases and about one to two years for criminal cases.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.