Abstract
This chapter discusses the main legal problems Greece faced during the various phases of the COVID-19 crisis. The impact of the pandemic on the protection of civil rights seems to be lasting and nefarious. Fundamental rights were subject to unprecedented restrictions for the sake of public health, without any effective judicial protection. Free movement, the right of assembly, religious liberty, freedom of speech, economic liberty, and ultimately personal autonomy limited by compulsory vaccination, were regulated exhaustively by detailed and intrusive administrative rules and prohibitions. Moreover, the pandemic put under great pressure the existing framework for the constitutional protection of fundamental rights where the principle of proportionality is the cornerstone of judicial review.
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Notes
- 1.
See Tassopoulos (2020a), p. 81.
- 2.
According to the procedure enshrined in Art. 44 para 1 of the Greek Constitution.
- 3.
FRA (2020) - EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, Report on Greece.
- 4.
Law 4683/2020 (Government Gazette A 83/10.04.2020) Ratification of the 20.3.2020 A.L.C.
- 5.
Presumably, this happened in December 2021, when there was no lockdown notwithstanding a huge number of new cases of the Omicron variant of the disease in Greece.
- 6.
Contiades (2020), pp. 59, 103.
- 7.
Garnett and Parsons (2016), p. 502.
- 8.
Tassopoulos (2020b), p. 203.
- 9.
Art. 68 § 2 of the March 2020 A.L.C.
- 10.
Council of State (Suspension Committee, Plenary) 262/2020 held (para 7) that the temporary (from 15.11.2020 at 6.00 a.m. to 18.11.2020 at 9.00 p.m.) ban on public open-air gatherings of four persons or more throughout the territory was adopted because there were exceptionally urgent reasons of public interest relating to the protection of public health against the serious risk of spreading COVID-19. Moreover, the measure adopted by the contested decision is entirely provisional and, in the light of the circumstances, of reasonable duration.
- 11.
Kouroundis and Tsigaridas (2020).
- 12.
See, e.g., Guardian (2020).
- 13.
Law 4675/2020 “Prevention, protection and promotion of health, development of public health services and other provisions” (Government Gazette A 54/11.03.2020).
- 14.
See National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics (2021).
- 15.
Although this is a case concerning the compulsory COVID vaccination imposed on certain occupations, particularly the fire service, it is currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights, Thevenon v. France, Application no. 46061/21, filed October 7, 2021. See European Court of Human Rights Factsheet, COVID-19 Health Crisis (2022).
- 16.
European Court of Human Rights, Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic, Application no. 47621/13, April 8, 2021. See Vlachogiannis (2021).
- 17.
European Court of Human Rights, Refusal of requests for interim measures in respect of the Greek law on compulsory vaccination of health-sector staff against COVID-19, Press Release 266 (2021), September 9, 2021. https://eulawlive.com/app/uploads/request-for-interim-measures-against-greece-concerning-compulsory-vaccination-for-health-staff.pdf (last accessed 27 May 2022).
- 18.
Council of State (Suspension Committee, Plenary) 250 - 252/2021.
- 19.
Council of State (Suspension Committee) 133/2021.
- 20.
See also French Conseil d'État n. 440250 of 30.4.2020 (continuation of public services) as well as the pending case before the ECtHR, Thevenon v. France (application no. 46061/21).
- 21.
Law 4865/2021, Government Gazette A 238/4.12.2021.
- 22.
Tassopoulos (2021), p. 1201.
- 23.
See above Sect. 4.
- 24.
Per Art. 5 § 2 GrC.
- 25.
Council of State 665/2021 (Plenary), para 8.
- 26.
Ibid, para 11.
- 27.
Council of State (Suspension Committee) 49/2020, para 6.
- 28.
Council of State (Suspension Committee) 60/2020, para 4.
- 29.
Council of State (Suspension Committee) 1/2021, para 3.
- 30.
Compare on injunctive relief for limits on attendance at religious services, this case-law of the US Supreme Court: South Bay United Pentecostal Church, et al. v. Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, et al. of 29 May 2020, 592 U. S. ____ (2021); Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley, Applicant v. Steve Sisolak, Governor of Nevada, et al. of 8.7.2020, 591 U. S. ____ (2020); Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo of 25.11.2020, 592 U. S. ____ (2020). For the relevant case-law analysis, see the contribution of Tsiftsoglou A. in the present volume.
- 31.
Camous and Claeys (2020), pp. 331, 336.
- 32.
Ladi, Tsarouhas (2020), p. 1049.
- 33.
Tsourdi and Vavoula (2021), p. 59.
- 34.
See relevant data on https://emvolio.gov.gr/vaccinationtracker (last accessed 27 May 2022).
- 35.
Law 4855/2021 (Government Gazette A 215/12.11.21), Art. 36.
- 36.
Hellenic League for Human Rights (2021).
- 37.
Contiades (2020), pp. 111, 120.
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Tassopoulos, I.A. (2022). The Impact of the Pandemic on the Greek Constitution. In: Chrysogonos, K., Tsiftsoglou, A. (eds) Democracy after Covid. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13901-7_9
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