Professor of International Law, International University Bremen ( Germany ), and Former Judge of the European Court of Human Rights

Professor Georg Ress, who served from 1998 to 2004 as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights, is one of the foremost authorities on the subject of human rights in Europe. Born in 1935, he studied at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Vienna. In 1972, Professor Ress was awarded a doctorate in law from the University of Heidelberg and in 1976 the Habilitation. From 1977 to 1998, he was Full Professor of International and Constitutional Law and the Law of European Communities at the University of the Saarland (Saarbrücken). In 1979, Professor Ress was appointed director of the Institute of European Studies at the University of the Saarland, and in 1995 director of the Institute of Human Rights at the same university. From 1994 to 1998, he was the German member of the European Commission of Human Rights. In September 2005, he was appointed Professor of International Law at International University Bremen (Germany).