Linos-Alexandros Sicilianos was born in Athens on 9 May 1960.
He is Professor of Public International Law and Dean of the Law School of the University of Athens. He has been invited to teach at some of Europe's most important universities, including the Law Schools of the universities of the Sorbonne, Paris II, Oxford, Berlin, Leiden, Strasbourg, Geneva, and the Hague Academy of International Law.
In 2010, Mr. Sicilianos was elected to serve as a Judge on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He retired from the Court in March 2021. He was elected President of a section of the Court in February 2017 and Vice-President of the ECHR in May 2017. The Plenary of the European Court of Human Rights elected him President of the Court on 1 April 2019. In the 60-year history of this leading European institution (1959-2019), it was the first time a Greek had held this position.
In 2017, he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens.
He is also a member of the Curatorium of the Hague Academy of International Law, a member of the Institute of International Law which brings together leading international legal scholars from around the world, and a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague. He has served inter alia as a member and vice-chairman of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, vice-chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (2006-2011), vice-chairman of the International Institute for Human Rights, a member of the Executive Board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, and a Council of Europe expert.
He also serves on the academic committees of several international academic journals.
His scholarly work includes seven monographs, the editorship of several edited volumes (including an extensive commentary on the European Convention on Human Rights), and approximately 120 papers and studies in Greek, English and French on general international law, human rights, international environmental protection, international organizations, etc.
Since 1992, he has been honoured with various awards in Greece and abroad.
In 2020, he was honoured by the Council of State at a special plenary session. In 2021, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas). In the same year, he was decorated as Officer of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic by President Emmanuel Macron. In 2022, he was decorated as Grand Commander of the Order of the Redeemer by the President of the Republic, Mrs. Katerina Sakellaropoulou.