Penn State Dickinson Welcomes A Former Senior Legal Advisor to European Union Presidency as Visiting Professor of Law

Carlisle, PA (August 24, 2004) — A former senior legal advisor to the European Union (EU) presidency is spending the first six weeks of the fall 2004 semester as a visiting professor at The Penn State Dickinson School of Law.

Professor Takis Tridimas, a native of Athens, Greece, and the Sir John Lubbock Professor of Banking Law at the University of London 's Queen Mary College, is conducting a Comparative Judicial Law Making seminar that examines the contribution of the judiciary to political governance in comparative perspective. Tridimas plans to focus on comparisons between the Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice – the highest court of the European Union – and emphasize areas such as federalism, the protection of human rights, the principles of democracy, non-discrimination, equality and remedies for the protection of constitutional rights.

As senior legal advisor to the EU presidency in 2003, Tridimas had special responsibility for matters of enlargement – or growth of the EU – and institutional affairs. In this capacity, he chaired the committee responsible for conducting the legal negotiations and drafting the Treaty of Accession to the EU of the Central and Eastern European States.

Tridimas, who holds a doctorate in EU law, worked within the EU legal system as a law clerk for the European Court of Justice from 1992-1995. He subsequently taught European Union and English Law as a Fellow of St. John's College of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and as a professor at the University of Southampton School of Law in London.

In addition to EU law, Tridimas' research interests focus primarily in comparative constitutional law, financial services and EU external trade. He is a prolific scholar who authored The General Principles of Community Law (1999), co-edited New Directions in European Public Law (1998), and co-authored Public Law of the European Community: Cases, Materials and Commentary (1995). He is also the co-editor of the Yearbook of European Law (Clarendon Press, Oxford ); a member of the Editorial Board of The Company Lawyer ; and a member of the Advisory Board of the European Financial Services Law Review .

An active member of the European legal community, Tridimas is a barrister in England and Wales (Middle Temple ) and an advocate of the Bar of Athens, Greece. He is also a professor in Penn State Dickinson's Spring Semester in London program at the University of London 's Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Brugge, Belgium.

Tridimas earned a Ph.D. and LL.M. from Girton College, University of Cambridge, and an LL.B. from the University of Athens, Greece.