LEGAL NEWS










































 























 










 



 













 


























Death penalty: key facts about the situation in Europe and the rest of the world

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Greek Administrative Court rules state liable for Covid-19 vaccine side effects due to "excessive sacrifice"

Image
Greece: The Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens, in its decision no. 4202/2025, has ruled that the Greek State is liable for damages sustained by an individual due to side effects following a preventive "COVID-19" vaccination. This landmark decision was issued in a compensation lawsuit filed against the Hellenic Republic. The Case: Seeking Compensation for Vaccine-Related Harm The lawsuit was brought by a plaintiff seeking compensation for material damage and moral harm (non-pecuniary damage), alleging that they suffered severe side effects after their preventive COVID-19 vaccination with a specific vaccine. The initial claim was for €461,835.26, but this amount was subsequently restricted during the proceedings. The plaintiff based their claim on two legal grounds: Article 105 of the Introductory Law of the Civil Code (EισNAK): This article concerns the State's liability for compensation arising from illegal acts or omissions of its organs in the exe...
Read more

Ombudsman inquiry on Commission President’s text messages is a wake-up call for EU

Image
The European Ombudsman inquiry into the Commission’s handling of a request for text messages between its President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company is a wake-up call for all EU institutions about ensuring accountability in an era of instant messaging. One year after the initial request by a journalist, the Commission has still not clarified whether messages reported to concern major vaccine procurement deals exist and whether the public is entitled to see them. The Ombudsman had asked the Commission, in a finding of maladministration in January, to conduct a more thorough search for the text messages. The Commission’s recent response failed to say whether it had looked directly and correctly for the text messages and if not, why not. While the response recognised that work-related text messages can be EU documents, it reiterated that the Commission’s internal policy is, in effect, not to register text messages. The Ombudsman has closed  the inquiry  and upheld...
Read more

Obligation for lawyers to appear in person before disciplinary bodies : Advisory Opinion by ECtHR

Image
The European Court of Human Rights has delivered its opinion in response to a request (no. P16-2026-002) for an advisory opinion made by the Constitutional Court of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, under Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights. The request concerned the compatibility with Article 6 (right to a fair hearing) of the European Convention of the obligation for a lawyer facing disciplinary proceedings to appear in person at the hearing before the disciplinary body and, in the event of failure to do so, the resulting inability to be represented by counsel instead and to apply to the body in question to set aside an adverse decision entered in default (section 26 of the Law of 10 August 1991). It was made in the context of proceedings in which a former lawyer of the Luxembourg Bar had been disbarred for life by the Luxembourg disciplinary authorities. The Court clarified that the right to a fair hearing did not in principle preclude domestic legislation from...
Read more

Corporate Personality and Damages for Loss Caused to a Third Party Company: Forthwell v Pontegadea (UKSC)

Image
With its recent decision in Forthwell Ltd v Pontegadea UK Ltd [2026] UKSC 33, handed down on September 17, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom considered a particularly important issue of contract law: whether a contracting party can claim damages for loss suffered by a third party, and specifically by a company within the same group. The case concerned the historic Rogano restaurant in Glasgow. Forthwell, the tenant of the property, had granted the use of the premises to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lynnet Leisure, which operated the restaurant. Following severe flood and fire damage, the restaurant was unable to reopen, and Lynnet suffered a significant loss of profits. Forthwell sought to recover these losses from the landlord. The Supreme Court dismissed the claim. It affirmed the general rule that a contracting party may recover damages for its own loss and not, in principle, for loss suffered by a third party. The Court declined to create a new, broader exception that ...
Read more

EPPO appeals to the Court of Justice of the EU against the European Court of Auditors’ refusal to cooperate in a criminal investigation

Image
On 10 February 2025, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) filed an appeal (case number T-99/25) to the Court of Justice of the European Union, under Article 263, paragraph 4, TFEU, against the decision of the European Court of Auditors denying the request of the EPPO to allow a number of staff members of the Court of Auditors to testify in an ongoing criminal investigation.  The summary of the appeal has been published in the  Official Journal . At the end of 2022, based on a report from the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF), the EPPO opened an investigation concerning individuals serving at the European Court of Auditors. The purpose of any EPPO investigation is to ascertain the accuracy of the reported facts, as well as their relevance as a criminal offence, by impartially gathering evidence for or against the person or persons under investigation. In order to be able to do that in this particular case, the EPPO has requested to the European Court of Auditors to ...
Read more

Legal Professional Privilege in the Digital Age: Recent case law of the ECtHR and the core principles that should govern searches

Image
By Giorgos Kazoleas, Lawyer The protection of legal professional privilege is a fundamental pillar of the right to respect for private life and correspondence (Article 8 of the ECHR), as well as of the right to a fair trial (Article 6 of the ECHR). In recent years, as the use of digital means in the practice of law has become firmly established, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has delivered important judgments focusing mainly on the digital age, searches of law offices and the surveillance of communications between lawyer and client. Set out below is a selection of ECtHR case law on such matters: Seizure and retention of vast amounts of lawyers' digital data In Kırdök and Others v. Turkey (3 December 2019), the national authorities seized all the hard drives and digital files of a law office in the course of an investigation, without distinguishing between the documents relating to the case and the confidential files of other clients. The Court found a violat...
Read more

International Criminal Court removes Prosecutor Karim Khan over serious misconduct

Image
International Criminal Court member states voted to dismiss prosecutor Karim Khan following disputed allegations that he sexually assaulted a female member of his staff. The Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court held a special session on disciplinary proceedings involving an elected official on 24 July 2026 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Assembly adopted a decision, by secret ballot, by an absolute majority of 82 States Parties, finding that Mr. Karim Khan committed serious misconduct and serious breach of duty and removed him from office under article 46 of the Rome Statute. Following the decision, Deputy Prosecutors Nazhat Shameen Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang, will continue to head the Office of the Prosecutor (the Office). Since Mr Karim A. A. Khan took a leave of absence in May 2025,  the Deputy Prosecutors have assumed responsibility for the leadership, management and administration of...
Read more