Lia I. Athanassiou

Lia I. Athanassiou is a Professor of Commercial & Maritime Law at the Law School of the University of Athens, holding senior full-time tenure. She specializes in Shipping Law, Company Law, and Competition Law. She earned a PhD from the University of Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne and was a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School (2007-08). She has held roles including member of the Hellenic Competition Commission (2003–2008) and President of the Organizing Committee for the International Conference of Maritime Law in Piraeus. Her expertise extends to arbitration, legislative reform, and international maritime policy.

Her research focuses on maritime legal frameworks, competition law, industrial property, and European transport law. She has published widely in Greek, English, and French, directing two maritime law publication series. She has lectured globally at institutions in the US, Malta, UK, Italy, France, and Germany.

Awards include her Fulbright Scholarship. She actively contributes to international organizations like the ILO’s Committee of Experts and chairs legislative committees on Greek maritime law reform. Her work intersects legal, technological, and regulatory challenges in maritime transport, with recent focus on autonomous ships and decarbonization.