Michael Paroussis

Prof. Dr. Michael Paroussis was born in Athens, Greece in 1958, and is Assoc. Professor for Philosophy, Theory and Epistemology of Law at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Patras since 2004 and Head of Department since 2014. Ass. Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Freiburg 1992-1999. Postgraduate Scholar of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 2000-2003. PhD in Law at the University of Freiburg 1992, awarded with the Carl-von-Rotteck Preis 1992. European Award for Legal Theory 1994 and teaching at the European Academy of Legal Theory in Brussels 1994-1996. Study of Law at the University of Athens 1976-1981 and postgraduate studies in History and Theory of Institutions at the University of Sorbonne Paris II-Panthéon 1981-1983 with a scholarship of the Greek National Scholarships Foundation. Attorney-at-Law at the Athens Bar since 1983. Speak fluent Greek, German, French and English. Currently teaching Practical Philosophy, Theory of Democracy, Bioethics and Philosophy of Law.

• Research projects / interests:
  • Theory of Deliberative Democracy
    (Author of the book “Deliberative Democracy and Communicational Ethics” in Greek, Athens 2005)
  • Principles of Justice: Distributive Justice in International Law
    (Author of the book: “Theorie des juristischen Diskurses. Eine institutionelle Epistemologie des Rechts”, in German, Berlin 1995)
  • Bioethical Dilemmas and Ecocentric Environmental Ethics
    (Study in preparation, about the shift of bioethical thinking from mankind-centered individual responsibility to a nature-centered model of thinking incl. non-human animals)
  • The Diffusion of Practical Philosophical Knowledge from Academia to Society
    (subject of a recently submitted research project to the Greek National Foundation of Research)
• Areas of interest:
  • Polar Governance
  • Humanities
  • Antarctic Treaty System
  • Polar Policy
  • Geopolitics
  • Cultural Studies
  • Environmental Ethics
  • Values

Keywords: Distributive Justice, International Law, Ethics of Intergenerational Relations, Democracy, Power, Intersubjectivity, Personality, Human Dignity, Non-human animals