Université de Strasbourg

Petros Stangos

Biography - Petros Stangos

Faculty of Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece & USIAS Fellow in the research unit Law, Religion, Business and Society (DRES), University of Strasbourg and CNRS

Petros Stangos, USIAS Fellow 2020

Petros Stangos was born in Thessaloniki (Greece). With a scholarship from the French government, he gained a PhD in international law in 1979 at the University of Dijon. He began his academic career in 1982 and became full professor of international economic law and EU law at the Faculty of Law of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1997, and Jean Monnet Chair of European Human Rights Law in 2000. He has furthermore held the position of professor of EU law at the National School of Judges (1997-2004) and has been president of the management board of the Centre for European Legal Culture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki since 2018.

Professor Stangos has been visiting professor of EU law in many European universities, and Fellow of the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study (2014-2015). He was elected as vice-president of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), twice, from 2013-2014 and 2015-2016, and has been a member of the ECSR between 2009-2020. He has been ex officio member of the Supreme Special Court of Greece (2006 and 2007), member of Greece’s National Commission for Human Rights (2006-2012) and chair of the second sub-commission for social, economic and cultural rights (2010-2012). Petros Stangos was also senior expert (2006-2008) of the Greek branch of the Network of Legal Experts in the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA-LEX), and has acted as a legal consultant in both the private and the public sector (Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, World Trade Organization). 

Throughout his career, Professor Stangos has managed and participated in numerous European and Greek research projects, mainly in the field of anti-discrimination law and European human rights law, and published many articles and books. His areas of expertise span EU economic law, national and European social rights law, national and European anti-discrimination law, international economic law, and public international law.

During his time in Strasbourg, Professor Stangos will be welcomed by Dr. Mélanie Schmitt in the research unit Law, Religion, Business and Society (DRES).

Project – In the making of the European social jurisprudence - the 'collective complaints' decisions of the European Committee of Social Rights

01/02/2022 - 31/07/2023

As is the case with other international and European human rights instruments, the articles of the European Social Charter (ESC) are formulated, in their heading alone, as rights. However, the content of each article is shaped by the obligation, established at the expense of contracting governments, to take specific action in the areas where what has been called a ‘right’ can be applied. In this articulation between the formulation of a right and the ensuing obligations of governments to take specific measures, it is commonly assumed that there is no obvious sign of a norm that can be evoked for the benefit of those persons to whom the governmental measures apply.

The research project aims to refute this assumption, by researching and demonstrating how the European Committee of Social Rights - that monitors the implementation of the ESC by the contracting governments, within the framework of its collective complaints procedure - is able to deduce norms from the above mentioned articulation, which apply to the specific situation of the persons involved in the collective complaint. These norms require behavioural commitments of the contracting governments, as well as the achievement of results that meet the set guidelines in the areas of employment relations and social protection. The norms, highlighted and elucidated by the research project, will represent the “hard core” of public, social and labour policies of European governments. This normative “hard core” could subsequently be interpreted as a building block of a common European social model, which has already been a subject of intense discussion over the past ten years in academic and political circles.

The initial project "The making of the European social jurisprudence” was adjusted in light of the coronavirus pandemic that started early 2020.

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