Overview
Cyprus is a common law jurisdiction country, and its justice system is based on the adversarial model. Most of Cypriot law has been modelled after English common law and equity, the basic principles of which are directly applied by Cyprus courts under Section 29 of the Courts of Justice Law.
The general contract law of Cyprus is codified by the Contract Law, Cap. 149 (Cap. 149), which is identical in some respects to the Indian Contract Act 1872. The Cyprus courts may seek guidance from decisions of the English courts and principles of Indian case law in relation to contract law, as well as from recognised academic textbooks thereon.
The courts are bound by the doctrine of precedent, according to which the superior courts' (second instance) decisions bind subordinate courts. The Supreme Court has unlimited subject-matter jurisdiction, and its decisions when operating as an appeal court are final unless overturned by the European Court of Human Rights or the European Court of Justice. In Cyprus, the courts follow and apply the procedural rules adopted for each type of court. The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) apply to all district court civil procedures and in civil procedures before other courts, in some instances mutatis mutandis.