Filenews 16 July 2023 - by
Cyprus is undergoing a socio-political transformation, which is moving slowly, according to Georgia Constantinou-Panayiotou, spokesperson of the Cyprus Bar Association (GPA) and member of the association's board of directors. It takes a direct position on the burning issue of judicial reform, without abdicating the responsibility of lawyers and puts its finger on the hot potato of corruption.
Corruption, she points out, is like a pimple allergy found all over our body. All these years we have lived with the itch and now that we have learned that there is a cure, we as a society are desperately asking for the remedy. She also talks about the need to cultivate a culture of out-of-court dispute resolution, noting that this is what the Cyprus Centre for International Arbitration aims at.
-Implementation of reforms in the field of Justice rather at a snail's pace, hence the scolding by the responsible EU Commissioner. How do you get the overall image by serving one of the vital pillars of the sector?
There can be no civilized country, nor a well-governed state, that on the one hand allows the arbitrariness of the executive power to go unpunished and on the other hand lacks the rapid and effective administration of justice. The principles of the rule of law need to be deepened. So the wake-up call rang or should have rung about two decades ago, when court cases began to stack up and the first delays in their adjudication began to appear. The remarks of the EU Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Reynders, as well as the report of the European Commission in 2023, are fully valid and do not do honour either to the State or to the judiciary. They certainly reflect a situation that has been allowed to develop into a chronic wound of the rule of law in Cyprus. What matters is whether we follow their recommendations, what corrective action we are taking in practice today and how not to repeat the same mistakes. The country, with a very long delay, proceeded at the beginning of July with the implementation of judicial reform at the highest level. It is certainly the first step, but on a treacherous road.
What is wrong with the lack of necessary changes in order to achieve results and not complain that Justice that is slow is not Justice?
Broader and deeply structural reforms need to be made. In other words, we also need to promote a culture of the rule of law within the framework of the Treaty on European Union, with the consolidation of transparency. A preventive mechanism is needed in the area of the rule of law, which is where we have failed. And there is also a need to respond effectively to breaches of the rule of law, applying a strategic approach, fast-track procedures and the possibility of taking interim measures.
What of this ultimately happens depends on the vision and determination of the executive on the one hand and on the parliamentary political maturity and cross-party consensus capacity of the legislature on the other. I have the impression, following closely our temperament as a people over the last 20 years, that Cyprus is now undergoing a socio-political transformation, which moves at a slow pace, and is often interrupted by episodes that shock our wider socio-political system. This happens when a symptom of the failed outdated systemic culture that we are trying to get rid of as part of our evolution manifests itself publicly.
But we are credited as a society with the noble intention to change, against established conservatism. Until this socio-political transformation is completed, which will bring about a different incentive structure and flourishing of institutions, all efforts at reform, whether in the judiciary or anywhere else, will hardly secure sufficient support to succeed in the time they need to succeed. For the time being, we are surviving on the public practice of bypass, i.e. bypassing the essential solution and consolidation, for the sake of temporary practical convenience.
Do lawyers have no responsibility for not promoting reforms that will make a difference, since some "play" delays in the completion of cases in order to have higher fees?
We often say, with pride, that lawyers are co-functionaries in Justice. This should, rightly, have two sides, that is, it also makes us participants in any responsibility for maintaining a problematic culture that has prevailed for years in the courts. However, lawyers, neither at the individual professional level nor at the organized collective or scientific level, have executive power to make decisions, to create and implement government policies, to replace those who have the decisive power to bring about change, but certainly not legislative power to pass or amend legislation. They can certainly influence and assist in them and I firmly believe that this has been done in an organized and timeless manner by the Cyprus Bar Association (GPA). The association participated constructively in finding feasible solutions, in enriching with the immediate reflexes of the private sector and with the scientific expertise required by the study for the implementation of judicial reform. This is recognised by all stakeholders. Lawyers organized, through the GPA, were indeed a lever of constructive pressure for development, and a valuable tool that contributed to honest dialogue in the right direction.
-Why is mediation not promoted in our country? In Italy it is mandatory...
-In Italy, the Italian courts were decongested and the time taken to adjudicate disputes was significantly reduced, because they saw the problem globally, multidimensionally. In Cyprus, the system was unfortunately slow to grasp in the bud both the problem and the essential value of alternative dispute resolution. The GPA, through the competent committee staffed by qualified colleagues, implemented important initiatives, on the one hand to inform Justice officials about the institution and its advantages with the aim of creating a culture of out-of-court dispute resolution, and on the other hand by upgrading the Cyprus Centre for International Arbitration, which since 2020 belongs to and now operates under the auspices of the GPA. The aim is for this Centre to become the core for the implementation of alternative dispute resolution methods in Cyprus. In addition, we submitted practical suggestions to the Judiciary, such as issuing a circular to the civil courts to refer the case themselves to mediation with the agreement of all parties.
Digitisation... files at the time of artificial intelligence
-When can we expect to have trials and results in due time?
-Not in the near future. For now, with the implementation of the reform at the highest judicial level, litigation will be seen by litigants in appeals pending at the Supreme Court. But most of the problem is concentrated in the courts of first instance, the local district courts, where tens of thousands of cases are pending. In general, in order to effectively and permanently solve the chronic problems of Justice, multilevel synergy of our entire legal system is needed. We need vision and decisive actions by the State, proper prioritization, increased investment in both human resources and the state budget, and of course digital transformation. It troubles me that while the modern world is discussing the upcoming impact of Artificial Intelligence on justice, here in Cyprus, the practical debate on technology is limited to electronic document registration software and the digitization of files.
