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

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

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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...
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From Regulation to Strategy: Europe’s New Tech Agenda

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Written by Efi Thoma, Senior Global Legal Counsel  Europe’s approach to technology regulation is entering a more practical phase. After several years of ambitious rule-making, Brussels is increasingly focused on implementation, enforcement and simplification. For technology companies, the key question is no longer simply “What does the law require?” but “How do we make these requirements work in practice without unnecessarily slowing innovation?” The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) establishes a risk-based framework covering areas such as transparency, governance, human oversight and high-risk AI systems. As implementation progresses, the emphasis is increasingly on making the framework workable in practice, including through regulatory sandboxes and measures supporting implementation. For businesses, the practical approach is to embed AI governance into existing processes rather than create an entirely separate compliance structure. AI inventories, risk classification, procu...
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The Title Deed Issue in Cyprus and the "Trapped Buyers" Phenomenon

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Article By Giorgos Kazoleas, Lawyer LL.M.  The issue of title deeds in Cyprus and the phenomenon of "trapped buyers" constitutes one of the greatest legal, financial, and social peculiarities of Cypriot real estate law. The Cypriot Peculiarity: Sale Without a Title Deed Under Cypriot law (pursuant to the Immovable Property (Tenure, Registration and Valuation) Law, Cap. 224), legal ownership of a property is transferred and acquired solely upon its registration with the Department of Lands and Surveys and the issuance of the relevant Certificate of Registration (Title Deed). However, a major peculiarity exists: it is entirely legal to sell a property that does not (yet) possess a separate title deed. This typically occurs in new developments (apartment buildings or residential complexes), where the title deed for the plot of land belongs to the developer, but the separate title deeds for each apartment or house can take years to be issued due to bureaucracy, pending ap...
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Coronavirus as force majeure event - The impact on contracts

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by George Kazoleas, Lawyer LL.M The rapid spread of coronavirus worldwide has crucial effects in social and economic life. The regularity of transactions has been disrupted and the normal evolution of many aspects of economic and commercial activity has been reversed. According to the World Health Organization, coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause disease in animals or humans. In humans, several coronaviruses cause respiratory infections, influenza and more serious illnesses such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered coronavirus causes COVID-19. Coronavirus as force majeure It depends on the circumstances if the spread of the virus can be regarded as a cause of force majeure that prevents or inhibits the fulfillment of contractual obligations. The European Commission states that there is force majeure if the incident or its non-fulfillment "is due to circumstanc...
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International Criminal Court removes Prosecutor Karim Khan over serious misconduct

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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...
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Continued preventive detention of convicted paedophile in view of risk of reoffending did not breach Convention but Administrative Court ought to have held hearing in his case (ECtHR)

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The case of B.M. v. Switzerland (application no. 50227/21) concerned the rejection of the application for release on licence made by the applicant, a paedophile who had been in preventive detention since 2005 following his conviction for sexual assault of minors, and the Administrative Court’s failure to hold a hearing in his case. In Chamber's judgment dated 12.5.2026, the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been no violation of Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court found, in particular, that the Federal Supreme Court had adopted an approach consistent with the principles set out in its case-law on the justification for deprivation of liberty under paragraph 1 (a) of Article 5 of the Convention when it had held that the legal interests at stake were of high importance because they involved the physical and mental well-being of children, who were vulnerable individuals. The continuation of th...
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