I. Judicial decisions are considered enforceable when, both in terms of their content and formal requirements, they are recognized as "regular" and consistent with the Constitutional Charter of Mount Athos (art. 78 of the Charter).
Therefore, the following are enforceable:
- Final decisions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Holy Synod.
- Final decisions of a special court composed of a three-member exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and an extraordinary twenty-member synaxis (art. 9 para. 3 of the Legislative Decree dated September 10/16, 1926).
- All primary court decisions regarding ecclesiastical and disciplinary violations, unless an appeal has been timely filed. In this case, the enforcement of the decision is postponed until a secondary court decision is issued, even if the responsible judicial authorities do not meet the prescribed deadlines (art. 13 of the Legislative Decree dated September 10/16, 1926 in conjunction with art. 73-74 of the Charter).
- All unappealable decisions regarding private law disputes, such as boundary disputes and debt agreements, examined in the higher level, which have not been timely appealed. In exceptional cases, this decision may be recognized as temporary rather than final (by decision of the court conducting the trial, following a request by one of the parties and provided that the opposing party has also been heard).
II. The enforcement of court decisions is legally assigned to the governor of Mount Athos, who issues the appropriate directives to the competent state authorities executing these orders. During the enforcement of court decisions, one of the epistates must always be present, except for the protepistatis, who is exempted "from such presence" (art. 4 para. 3 and 34 of the Legislative Decree dated September 10/16, 1926 and art. 8 of the Charter).
The governor does not have the right to interfere with "court judgments that have been delivered legally and declared as being ready for execution" (art. 4 para. 4 of the Legislative Decree dated September 10/16, 1926). However, there is the view that he is obligated to review the legality of the decisions he is called upon to enforce, while any potential refusal to enforce a court decision constitutes a lawful administrative action, the annulment of which requires review by the Council of State.
Judicial decisions imposing ecclesiastical penalties, such as deprivation of clerical status, recitation of prayers with prayer beads, etc., are enforced without the intervention of secular authorities. However, they are communicated to the administration of Mount Athos (art. 8 § 2 of the Legislative Decree dated September 10/16, 1926).
