Constitutional law on the arbitrary

The new law (4178/2013) on the legalization of unauthorized buildings successfully passed the constitutionality test by the Council of State. The Plenary Session of the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the provisions of the law are constitutionally acceptable and lawful.

More specifically, the Plenary Session of the Council of State (presided over by Sotiris Rizos and rapporteur Konstantinos Kousoulis, State Councilor) ruled that the law on tackling illegal construction, which provides for the preservation of illegal buildings for a long period of time, their exemption from demolition, etc., does not violate any constitutional provision.

In their decision, the State Councilors emphasize that, based on the set of measures being put in place to prevent illegal construction activity from continuing in the future, it is considered that the relevant provisions of Law 4178/2013 referring to past illegal construction are constitutionally acceptable.

The case reached the Council of State following an appeal by three residents of Marousi requesting that the ministerial decisions to launch the IT system for processing applications under Law 4178/ 2013 concerning the legalization of unauthorized buildings.

Furthermore, they argued that the law in question is unconstitutional insofar as it provides for the long-term preservation of unauthorized buildings, their exemption from demolition, etc.