THE PROCEDURAL SYSTEM AND THE REASONABLE DURATION OF THE PROCESS WITHIN THE NEW CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE OF 2015

Abstract

It is not enough for the State to execute the jurisdictional service; it must do so within an admissible timeframe, in an appropriate manner, and with the constant objective of ensuring the advancement of justice. In order to expedite the jurisdictional service, the legislator promoted countless procedural reforms in previous decades, which repeatedly modified the 1973 Code of Civil Procedure. However, these reforms fell far short of what is essential to achieving the higher objective. It is undeniable that the Judiciary is currently experiencing a delicate period, as it struggles to deliver a comprehensible state response to those seeking justice. As a solution, and with one of its essential objectives being to employ the principle of acceptable process durability, and based on the proposition that the numerous piecemeal reforms that altered the 1973 Code of Civil Procedure – in the last thirty years – were not capable of resolving the issue, the National Congress appointed a committee of jurists, which drafted a new Code of Civil Procedure, sanctioned in March 2015, and which will come into effect in March 2016. According to those responsible for its composition, the new legal instrument was designed to dynamically ensure that processes proceed within an acceptable timeframe.