Greece

This article presents comprehensively the philosophy behind and the structure of criminal law in the Greek legal order as well as its implementation in the everyday practice. Following a brief introduction to the historical background of Greek criminal law and its progressive Europeanisation, this article is divided into two parts: In the first part, it examines the fundamental tenets of substantive criminal law, the crime’s identity and structure, the system of penalties and the basic characteristics of the systematisation of the Greek Criminal Code’s Special Part and the so-called Special Criminal Laws. In the second part, the focus lies on the fundamental principles governing the criminal procedure, the procedural safeguards, the structure of the pre-trial and trial proceedings and the alternative mechanisms of adjudication of criminal cases.