The present study focuses on the personal appearance of parties in judicial councils, a procedural institution that has always been extremely undervalued. This work aspires to respond to the need for a theoretical approach to the institution of personal appearance of parties in judicial councils, as well as an interpretive addressing of the many practical problems that have arisen at a practical level, through an analytical recording of the historical course of the relevant provisions.

For a whole eighty years (1920-2010), its explicit legislative establishment, sometimes with a potential (1920-1950) and sometimes with a mandatory (1951-2010) character, did not hinder judicial practice from dealing with it with characteristic antipathy, inventing various justifications for avoiding its implementation. Moreover, the procedural legislator, in the last two years, with two consecutive pieces of legislation (Law 3904/2010 and Law 4055/2012), instead of attempting to highlight the importance of the institution within the context of the troubled interim procedure with the ultimate goal of 'genuine' speeding up of the trial and relieving the oral proceedings, rather complicated matters by initially establishing the mandatory appearance of the parties' lawyers in the council and ultimately narrowing the related right to unacceptable limits.

On the other hand, several special procedural provisions (either in the Code of Criminal Procedure or in special laws), which foresee a right to personal appearance of the parties in the judicial council in order to orally exercise their right to a hearing, remained intact. If we add to all this the continuously evolving case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which has often condemned our country for violating the principle of equality of arms during the (non-) hearing of the defendant by the council, which decides on issues related to their temporary detention, it becomes apparent that the institution of personal appearance of parties in the judicial council presents an increased theoretical and practical interest.

Specifically, the work is divided into the following five chapters: Legislative development of the institution in Greek criminal procedural law, Doctrinal foundation of the institution of personal appearance of parties in the judicial council, The legislatively stipulated cases of personal appearance of parties in the judicial council, Conditions for personal appearance of parties in the judicial council, and The process of appearance of the parties before the judicial council.