NOM412: Criminal Procedure

The purpose of the Module is to understand the criminal proceedings from its starting point to the preparatory stage of the proceedings in audience. Within this context, it is considered appropriate to initially define the Greek system of criminal proceedings, the criminal proceedings’ characteristics and the principles that (should) govern it, as well as the attributes and role of the criminal trial protagonists. The subject area of the module further includes the authority of Greek criminal courts and their jurisdiction (material and territorial, jurisdiction arising through nexus or participation or joint liability, referential jurisdiction and functional jurisdiction), the procedural requirements, the procedural acts and the nullities (relative, absolute). A special section is devoted to the persons of the criminal trial (parties, judicial persons, etc.) and the way in which they should participate in the criminal proceedings (grounds for exclusion, exception, abstention of judges, lawful appearance before competent courts for the subsequent support of a civil action, etc.). Moving, moreover, to the analysis of the stages of the criminal trial, the focus of teaching is placed on the approach of pre-trial stages and the individual ways of initiating criminal prosecution, the preliminary examination and, of course, the means of procedural coercion (see pre-trial detention and restrictive conditions) and the ways of referring the accused to the court), but also on the means of defence that they may have  up to that point in the criminal trial. Finally, a special section is devoted to the expedited procedure (see red-handed crimes).