Archive note: This text comes from the old archive of Nomika Epilekta and is preserved with care for historical and informational reading.

A former president of the Areios Pagos (Supreme Court) (who writes articles on current issues) expressed the opinion, in the context of criticism of the political system and politicians, that the Greek people had the misfortune to be governed by politicians who had not practiced any profession. Thus, our politicians do not know the pulse, the pains and the sorrows of citizens who struggle for their daily bread [the newspaper “ESTIA” of 30.07.2011, in the article entitled “the mockery of the Greeks”].

The main result of the professionless character of our politicians is not, according to the columnist, only the misfortune of citizens who have such incapable representatives, but also their impoverishment, because of the over-taxation imposed by those politicians, the inability to restrict the public sector, and the continuing existence of unpaid debts to the state amounting to 41 billion euros.

Also, according to the retired judge, the courts cannot apply the new law by which delay in paying tax debts above €5,000 is punished with imprisonment (with application of the flagrante delicto procedure), because “the experience of the past teaches that the courts never show the callousness of those who govern”.

The columnist’s views can attract many objections, especially as regards the courts’ supposed failure to show callousness (like the harshness of those who govern), because the experience of the past as well as of the present teaches the exact opposite (with recent examples being the conviction of a minor as an adult, the continued pre-trial detention of a young postpartum mother together with her infant, the imposition on young drug addicts of multi-year prison sentences, the refusal in numerous cases to recognize the status of a patient, the refusal to suspend the execution of sentences even for the dying, the vindictive pre-trial detention of the entire family of one of the suspects in the “Siemens” case, the conviction of defendants despite doubt, and the conviction of someone for embezzlement of registered shares that cannot be embezzled).

However, the view appears correct that government by politicians who had practiced no profession before becoming involved in politics is indeed a serious defect in them, one that harms citizens, because those politicians, being inexperienced, take harsh measures callously, mainly in taxation.

This policy would be pro-people and successful if the politicians had practiced some profession and, indeed, had done so successfully, we add, following the columnist’s line of thought.

Yet beyond politicians, other groups to which the exercise of public authority has been assigned should also have practiced a profession, such as prosecutors and judges, who staff the state’s judicial function and the corresponding judicial power (criminal and civil).

Before someone is appointed as a prosecutor or judge, the candidate should have practiced a profession successfully, at least that of lawyer, for ten to fifteen years, and should have acquired through work the social experience and the abilities that politicians too ought to have in their own field, so that they know the pulse, the pains and the sorrows of citizens who struggle for their daily bread and do not condemn especially the weak, the young, the unknown and foreigners to the familiar multi-year and inhuman sentences, so that they feel compassion for patients (such as drug addicts and other mentally ill persons) and observe in their entirety the fundamental principles of humanism.

It is known that lawyers become prosecutors and judges, regardless of whether they have practiced their profession, by taking written and oral examinations and attending for a short period of a few months the “National School of Judges”.

The law does not require appointed prosecutors and judges to have practiced a profession or to have worked successfully as lawyers. For this reason many of the appointed judicial officers have not attended even one trial, civil or criminal, and learn to judge over the heads of citizens.

Of course, many of those taking the examinations for judges and prosecutors have practiced certain professions for a very short time, and very few have short experience as lawyers. However, such a serious area must not be left to chance, and the citizen must not be judged by judges and prosecutors who lack social experience and have the same deficiencies as the professionless politicians identified by the former president of the Areios Pagos in his article.

To judge and decide, resolving the complex disputes of citizens, convicting or acquitting defendants and deciding whether someone will be referred to trial or not, requires people who possess rich social experience, good legal training and the abilities one acquires through the successful practice of a profession or through the successful exercise of the legal function.

As many (and especially prominent) politicians do, so too many (most) judicial officers acquire judicial experience and knowledge while they judge citizens and their problems, and not on the basis of already existing experience and practical social knowledge. Thus, as we were informed, the new president of the Areios Pagos is not particularly sociable [“the choice of a woman as president of the Areios Pagos”], while almost all judicial officers live isolated from society, do not form relationships, and especially friendly ones, with other citizens, systematically avoiding communication with others and even loose social mingling. Thus, they do not know the pulse, the pains and the sorrows of citizens who struggle for their daily bread, whom they “treat” (this inappropriate word was taken from an article of the Code of Criminal Procedure) with arrogance, traditional rudeness and backward harshness.

Characteristic is the turn of phrase of a prosecutorial officer who celebrated his retirement from service with an event in the ceremonial hall of the bar association, declaring that upon anyone who does not observe the law “the heavy axe of justice” will fall. With this statement it was revealed that some people feel they are living not in the second decade of the 21st century, but essentially around the 11th or 12th century, when representatives of power confronted unjust acts with the log and the axe that fell on the head of the wretched serf, so that through terror and death he would “willingly” obey the ruler and tyrant of the day!

To enjoy the benefits of our century, economic recovery and putting things in order are not enough by themselves, nor is liberation from professional trade unionism and the familiar third-world deviations of our society. It is imperative first of all to change the Balkan mentality and to reform our institutions by cutting all the bonds that keep us tightly tied to the medieval past of decline.

An upgrade of studies is required; they must become substantive and modern, without sterile imitation through servile copying of foreign works. Both politicians and judicial officers, before assuming duties and powers, must already have acquired rich social experience through their recognition in the field of profession and work, through their friction within society, excluding their isolation. On the contrary, a basic qualification of both politicians and judges must be intense sociability, with courtesy of behavior in the forefront, breadth of knowledge, without rigidities and with a modern spirit, so that they are able to apply the fundamental principles in a spirit of leniency and humanism, which is absent from most judicial judgments.