The Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, at its 36th Regular Plenary Session, on 20 April 2022, decided unanimously, on the recommendation of the Class of Ethical, Economic and Political Sciences, to award the Award of the Republic of Cyprus 2022 to Simeon (Simos) Simeonides, distinguished Cypriot Professor of Law.
Professor Simeon (Simos) Chr. Simeonides was born in Lythrodontas and studied at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, receiving in 1972 a law degree with a grade of 10, and subsequently in 1973 a degree in Political Science from the same University. He continued on a scholarship to Harvard University, where he received his Master in Law and S.J.D. degrees. In 1976 he began his teaching career in Thessaloniki and in 1978 continued at the University of Louisiana, where he also served as Vice Chancellor for seven years. At Louisiana he held the Albert Tate Distinguished Chair. In 1999 he was elected Dean of Willamette University in Oregon, USA, a position he held for twelve years. At the University, he holds the Alex L. Parks Distinguished Honorary Chair and has been named Dean Emeritus. He has taught many times at the University of Sorbonne, the Hague Academy of International Law and many prestigious universities in America, Europe and Asia.
He has, among other things, been named President of the International Association of Jurists and the American Society of Comparative Law. He has been elected as a Fellow of the American Law Institute and a member of the Order of the Coif, and has served as President of the Association of American Law Schools for the field of private international law. Among his many honors, his election in 2021 as a member of the Academia Europaea stands out. In 2019 he was elected an honorary member of the Institut de Droit International. In 2017 he was named an honorary professor of the University of East China and an external member of the Venezuelan Academy of Political and Social Sciences. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Cyprus, Willamette University and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has received the Robert L. Misner Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship (2016), and the Certificate of Merit from the American Society of International Law (2015), and has been honored by the American Society of Comparative Law with the Lifetime Achievement Award (2015), the Courtland H. Peterson Senior Scholar Prize (2013), and the Friedrich K. Juenger Prize in Private International Law (2001). The Academia Mexicana de Derecho Privado y Comparado named its 2011 national conference in his honor, and he was honored by the Asociación Americana de Derecho Internacional Privado for his outstanding contribution to the promotion of private international law. The Louisiana Law Review devoted an entire issue in his honor in 2000.
Professor Simeonidis has published 27 books and 135 legal treatises in eight languages. One of his books was included in the five classics of the International Academy of The Hague, and his books in general have been awarded six scientific prizes. The US, UK and Israeli Supreme Courts have made 25 honorary citations to his work, calling him a "leading authority on US law". He has also been called "the undisputed leader" and "the giant of private international law" in the US, "the father of codifications" and "the world's leading expert on comparative private international law". His work was characterized by the connection between theory and practice, as confirmed by his impressive, for three decades, annual evaluation of the decisions of US and international courts in the field of private international law, which contributed to the reformation of the discipline. The international replacement of the formulaic process of selecting legal rules with specialized rules based on empirical research, innovative methodologies, and revision of the theoretical framework owes much to Professor Simeonidis.
Despite his long absence from Cyprus, Professor Simeonidis has always maintained his close ties with Cyprus. He played an important role in the trial in Indianapolis in 1989 for the return to Cyprus of the four Kanakaria mosaics, and participated in numerous other cases concerning the recovery of the cultural heritage of the Republic of Cyprus through litigation, contributing his expertise as an expert in cultural heritage law and private international law. He has also represented Cyprus in several conferences and organizations in the US and Europe. During the Cyprus EU Presidency in 2012, he travelled to Brussels and for six months chaired or participated in the European integration processes on major European law regulations, including the revision of Brussels I and the negotiation of Rome III. Of particular importance was also his acceptance to be appointed as head of the committee that helped to establish the University of Cyprus Law School.
The ceremony of awarding the Order of the Republic of Cyprus will take place at the Panhellenic Session of the Academy, at a time and place to be announced in a new announcement.
(NG/SX)
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