Symeon C Symeonides

Symeon C. Symeonides received his first law degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Law School (Greece) with the highest grade in that school’s history—a perfect 10 out of 10. He also holds an LLM and an SJD from the Harvard Law School, and three honorary doctorates. He joined Willamette in 1999 as Dean of the College of Law and served in that capacity until 2011. Previously, he taught at the University of Thessaloniki (1976-78), and Louisiana State University (1978–99), where he also served as vice chancellor (1991-97). He also taught at The Hague Academy of International Law, the universities of Paris-I (Sorbonne), Paris-V (Descartes), Aix-en-Provence, Louvain-la-Neuve, NYU, Tulane, and Loyola, and lectured at more than fifty universities in the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

He is ranked among the top 75 living legal authors by Brian Leiter's Law School Reports, and among the top 250 legal authors of all time by HeinOnline. He has published 29 books and more than 130 articles, some of which appear in Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, or Spanish. His work has been cited by the supreme courts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel (22 times). Reviewers of his work refer to him as “the conflicts giant” (H. Levin 2006, O. Lando 2015), “the father of choice of law in the twenty-first century” (J. Singer 2021), and “the world’s leading expert on US and comparative conflicts law” (M. Reimann 2006, R. Michaels 2021). His last book has been characterized as “a worthy successor” of Joseph Story’s classic Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws (1834) and “an asset for the discipline in the United States and worldwide” (R. Michaels 2021). Reviewers of his previous books characterized them as “brilliant contributions to legal theory”, “original”, and “one-of-a-kind” (L. Weinberg, 2005), “masterful” and “indispensable” (Am. Soc. Int’l L. 2015), “cogent”, “penetrating” and “path breaking” (G. Shreve 2004), “superb” (W. Richman 2008), and “exceptionally valuable” (G. Simson 2019).

He has been honored with six academic prizes, including a gold medal (2001, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2022), two Lifetime Achievement awards (2015 and 2019), four resolutions of appreciation (1998, 2010, 2011, 2018), a “Key to the City” (2009), and the publication of A Tribute to Symeon C. Symeonides, 60 La. L. Rev. 1035-1399 (2000). 

He has served as president of the International Association of Legal Science (2013-17), the American Society of Comparative Law (2006-12), and the AALS Section of Conflicts of Laws (1999, 2014), and vice president of the International Academy of Comparative Law (2010-12). He is a member of the Academy of Europe and two national academies of arts and sciences, a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, and the Institut de Droit International, and a life member of the American Law Institute and the Groupe Européen de Droit International Privé. Symeonides has an extensive record in law reform. He drafted the Louisiana codification on Conflict of Laws, the Oregon codification for tort conflicts, a draft Code of Private International Law for Puerto Rico, and an international model law on internet conflicts, which was unanimously adopted by the Institut de Droit International. He spent six months in Brussels, chairing five working groups drafting new laws for the European Union and represented the Presidency of the EU council in negotiating an international convention. He was a member of an Experts’ Group and a Working Group that drafted another convention under the auspices of The Hague Conference on Private International Law. He currently serves as an Adviser for the Third Restatement on Conflict of Laws for the ALI. He also provided legislative advice to the EU Parliament and four foreign governments.

His teaching subjects include Conflict of Laws, Comparative Law, and International Litigation & Arbitration.