Anastasios Pavlopoulos

Dr. Anastasios Pavlopoulos is a constitutional lawyer and PhD (Public Law), admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Greece, with expertise in Constitutional Law, Human Rights, and Administrative Law. He graduated valedictorian from the Law School of Democritus University of Thrace, earned an LL.M. in Constitutional Law with highest honors (10/10), and completed his doctorate with distinction at the Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His dissertation examined the constitutional protection of labor rights.

He is the author of the monographs “The Constitutional Protection of Labor (Article 22(1)(a) of the Greek Constitution) in a Period of Economic Crisis” and “Media Law: Critical Balancing in the Protection of Journalistic Freedom,” and he has published widely in academic journals and collective volumes. He has written on the President of the Republic as a constitutional “arbiter” of the political system and, within the broader rule-of-law tradition, on forms of quasi-constitutional review in common-law systems—with particular attention to the landmark UK Supreme Court UNISON case on access to justice in employment disputes. His work also engages with freedom of expression (and its limits), racist and hate speech in the United States and Europe, political speech and press independence, as well as the freedom of assembly as a right of renewed contemporary relevance. In parallel, he has studied the pioneering role of Greece’s Council of State in shaping environmental law, EU wildlife protection, and the principle of rational urban planning, and he has conducted focused research on the use of comparative method in constitutional adjudication. He has presented at numerous conferences in Greece and abroad.

In practice, he is an active litigator, appearing primarily before Greece’s administrative courts and the Supreme Administrative Court of Greece (Council of State), with a focus on environmental and energy law, land use and spatial planning, public procurement, human rights, and tax law. As a constitutional-law expert, he has also advised government officials and public bodies on institutional questions, fundamental-rights issues, and the constitutional assessment of major public-policy choices.

Dr. Pavlopoulos has extensive teaching experience, having held independent teaching appointments at five universities in Greece and Cyprus. Over the years, he has taught a wide range of public-law subjects, along with courses and seminars in legal methodology and philosophy of law. He has supervised more than 20 graduate theses and has designed a variety of hands-on initiatives that help students develop professional skills essential to legal practice—such as legal debate, performance-based workshops (including acting seminars), rhetoric and public-speaking labs, and moot courts.

At the York University Europe Campus School of Law, within the Greek Law curriculum with elements of English law, he teaches:

• Constitutional Law
• Constitutional Freedoms & Fundamental Rights
• Administrative Law
• Administrative Litigation and Procedure
• Public Law Synthesis

His current research focuses on constitutional structure and institutional design (especially from a comparative perspective), parliamentary law, judicial review of legislation, and the intersection of press freedom with media law.

Monographs

026 — Media Law: Critical Balancing in the Protection of Press Freedom. Kallipos.

2021 — The Constitutional Protection of Labor (Article 22(1)(a) of the Greek Constitution) in a Period of Economic Crisis. Athens: Nomiki Vivliothiki.

Selected Articles in Law Reviews or Chapters in Books

2024 — “The Principle of Rational Urban Planning and Permissible Building Height.” Real Estate Review, no. 3 (2024): 734–740.

2024 — “Legal Aspects of Real Estate Taxation.” Real Estate Review, no. 1 (2024): 22–27.

2023 — “The Use of Comparative Method in Constitutional Adjudication: The Case of Greece.” The Constitution (Greek law journal), no. 2 (2023): 557–598.

2021 — “COVID-19 Health Passes, Rights Balancing, and the Ethico-Political Role of the Proportionality Principle.” Theory and Practice of Administrative Law, no. 12 (2021): 1322–1328.
2021 — “The Right to Disconnect: Content and Prospects.” Labor Law Review, no. 8 (2021): 869–880.

2021 — “Freedom of Assembly: The Revival of a Forgotten Right.” Theory and Practice of Administrative Law, no. 4 (2021): 56–63.

n.d. — “A General Ban on Public Assemblies as a Question of Constitutional Interpretation.” Constitutionalism.gr (A. Manesis Group), online essay.

2020 — “The Pendulum of Racial Equality in the United States: Police Violence and Political Protest from the 1950s to the Black Lives Matter Movement.” The Advocate (Greek law journal), no. 139 (2020): 6–13.

2020 — “‘Killing Wolves to Save Them’? A Landmark CJEU Ruling on the Protection of Wildlife in Europe.” Environment & Law, no. 1 (2020): 101–109.

2019 — “The Stronger Freedom of Expression Is, the Stronger Democracy Becomes?” The Constitution (Greek law journal), no. 2 (2019): 471–494.

2019 — “Racist Speech and Freedom of Expression in the United States and Europe.” In Towards an Inclusive Citizenship in Greece and Europe, 321–338. Athens: Papazisis, 2019.

2019 — “‘No Difference Between Not Enacting and Not Enforcing’ for Thirty-Two Years: The Pioneering Role of the Supreme Administrative Court of Greece in Shaping Environmental Law (on Judgment No. 2688/2018).” Environment & Law, no. 2 (2019): 237–244.

2018 — “A Hymn to the Rule of Law: UNISON, Access to Justice in Employment Disputes, and Quasi-Constitutional Review by the UK Supreme Court.” The Constitution (Greek law journal), no. 4 (2018): 1291–1322.

2017 — Book review: Konrad Hesse, The Constitution of Political Unity and Practical Concordance (Greek translation with introduction by Stylianos-Ioannis G. Koutnatzis; Athens: Papazisis, 2017). The Constitution (Greek law journal) (2017): 911–922.

2015 — “Excessive Public Debt and Social Rights in the Eurozone Periphery: The Greek Case” (with K. Chrysogonos & T. Zolotas). Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 22 (2015): 592–615.

2013 — “Review of Fiscal Policy in an Economic Crisis: Notes on ECtHR, N.M.K. v. Hungary (14 May 2013).” The Constitution (Greek law journal), no. 3–4 (2013): 713–719.

2011 — “Gender Equality in Social Security and the Expansive Application of the More Favorable Rule.” The Constitution (Greek law journal), no. 2 (2011): 305–359.

2009 — “The President of the Republic as an Arbiter of the Political System: The Meaning and Significance of Article 30(1)(a) of the Greek Constitution.” Armenopoulos Scientific Yearbook (2009): 125–137.