Péter PACZOLAY
Honorary President of the Venice Commission
Judge at the European Court of Human Rights
He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest in 1980. After working as a legal adviser, he lectured at the Department of the Philosophy of Law from 1983 to 1990 and from 1990 to 2005 at the Department of Political Sciences at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.
Since 1992 he has been Head of Department of Political Sciences at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of József Attila University of Szeged (at present University of Szeged). Between 1994 and 1998 he was Vice-Dean of the Faculty. He is full professor since 2000.
On 1 January 1990 he became chief counsellor to the Constitutional Court and from November 1996 he worked as Secretary General of the Court. From August 2000 he was Deputy Head, from August 2005 Head of the Office of the President of the Republic of Hungary.
He was elected Judge of the Constitutional Court in February 2006 and he was Vice-President of the Court from March 2007 to July 2008. The plenary session of the Constitutional Court elected him President on 4 July 2008 for three years. On 4 July 2011 the Hungarian Parliament – for the period of his mandate as Constitutional Judge, until February 2015 – elected him as President of the Court.
In 2002 he was elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg).
Between 2010 and 2015 he was member of the panel provided for by article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, mandated to give an opinion on the suitability of candidates to perform the duties of judge or advocate general of the Court of Justice or the General Court.
In 2016-2017 he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Italy, Malta and San Marino.
He is judge of the European Court of Human Rights since 24 April 2017.
From 2005 to 2013 he was member of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. Between 2009 and 2011 he was Vice President of the Commission, and in October 2013 he was elected as Honorary President. Since December 2017 he is also elected President of the Association of the Former Members of the Venice Commission.
His honours include among others:
- Grande Ufficiale nell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana;
- Grosse Verdienstkreuz mit Stern des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland;
- Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur (France).