Nestor E. Kourakis

Nestor E. Kourakis was born in Athens in 1947. He is married to architect-engineer Evridiki Kourakis, and they have three children. Education: He holds a Law degree (with honors) from the University of Athens (1971), a degree in Economics and Political Sciences from the University of Thessaloniki (1973), a Ph.D. (with honors) in Criminal Law from the University of Freiburg, Germany (1977), a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) in Criminology from the University of Paris II (1977), and a Diploma from the Institute of Criminology in Paris (1979), having received scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (D.A.A.D.) and the French Government, respectively. He has been serving at the Law School of the University of Athens since 1981. In 1984, he was unanimously appointed as an Associate Professor of Criminology and Penology, and since 1993, he has been a full Professor in the Department of Criminal Sciences at the Law School of Athens. Besides purely criminological courses, he has been teaching economic crime law, anti-crime policy, and gender-related criminality for years, laying the foundation for the development of these three fields in Greece through his teaching and related publications. He has been a lawyer in Athens since 1973. He was a scientific collaborator in the Interparty Committee of the Parliament for the Correctional System (1994) and chaired the committee that secured the necessary funds and proceeded with the construction of a state-of-the-art printing and bookbinding unit at Korydallos Prison (1992-1993). He has been a long-standing member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Society of Criminology. He has also served as a board member of the Central Scientific Council of Prisons, the Hellenic Society of Criminal Law, the Organization Against Drugs (O.KA.NA.), the Sfakian Association, and the Alumni Association of Athens College. He is also a member of numerous Greek and international scientific associations and societies, such as the Society for Judicial Studies. He was the scientific supervisor of the research on "violence in Greek stadiums" (1986-1988), the findings of which were presented in a report titled "Report on the incidence and violence at Greek sports stadiums" to the 13th informal conference of the Ministers of Sports of the member countries of the Council of Europe. He has also organized and directed scientific research on juvenile prisons (1993-1994), women's prisons (1994-1996), and a follow-up study on former juvenile detainees (1999-2002). Under his scientific supervision, a study on juvenile gangs in Greece (2002-2004) and one on the issue of euthanasia (2005-2007) were completed. He participated as a representative of Greece in conferences of the Council of Europe and the European Union on issues of criminology, prisons, corruption, juvenile delinquency, and anti-crime policy. He has also participated as a national rapporteur in conferences of the International Society of Criminal Law and the International Conference of Comparative Law. He was a member of the committees that drafted the current Correctional Code (Law 2776/1999), the revised Drug Law (Law 2161/1993), the revised Sports Law (Law 3057/2002), and the Law for the Revision of Juvenile Law (Law 3189/2003). He was elected as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, where he conducted research and co-organized a seminar on crime policy with Professor Roger Hood. He has been repeatedly invited by the University of Cyprus for lectures and participation in conferences. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the legal journal "Poinikos Logos" (since 2001) and the National Council for Radio and Television (since 2004). Additionally, he is the co-director of the bilingual scientific series "Studies in European Legal Science/European Studies in Law" (published by A.N. Sakkoulas, since 1999) and the Director of the Laboratory of Criminal and Criminological Research at the Faculty of Law, University of Athens (since 2001). He has been honored by the Academy of Athens with the "Aegis Tambakopoulou" award (1974) for his work "On the Abuse of Rights" and by the Association of Greek Penalists with the "K. Tsirimokos" award (1985) for his contribution "to the effort to elevate the criminal forum."