ELEMENTS OF THE STATUTE LAW 2479/1997 Official Gazette: A 67 19970506 TITLE: SUPREME SPECIAL COURT, EXPEDITION OF PROCEEDINGS, PROCEDURAL
SIMPLIFICATIONS AND OTHER PROVISIONS
ARTICLE 3
ARTICLE TITLE: ORGANIZATION OF COURTS, ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE AND OTHER PROVISIONS
26.a. The First Instance of Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki include a special chamber that tries copyright cases. Regular judges specialised in copyright matters are appointed to this chamber, which is set up in the said courts according to the procedure provided for by law concerning the constitution of courts’ chambers in general. In the first instance court, the said judges have a previous service of at least five years as first instance court judges. The term of service in this special chamber is two years and can be renewed at the request of the judges serving thereto. The specialisation of the judges serving in the special copyright chambers, in accordance with the second section of this paragraph, will be achieved in the framework of the training programmes provided for by the fifth paragraph of article 3 of Law 2236/1994 concerning the «National School for Judges». Until these programmes operate and until there are sufficient judges who have graduated therefrom, judges with simple experience in such matters may be used. If, in the said first instance courts, there are no judges with at least fiveyear service as first instance judges, judges with less previous service may be used. Where Law 2121/1993 refers to a «court», it is understood to refer to the court of this paragraph. b. Any appeals against the decisions of the said first instance courts will be tried before the Special Chamber of the Court of Appeal of Athens until special chambers are constituted in the Courts of Appeal of Thessaloniki and Piraeus.