George is Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow and Visiting Professor at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. From 2007 to 2016 he was Research Professor of Globalisation and Legal Theory and Director of the Centre for Law and Cosmopolitan Values at the University of Antwerp. He has also held visiting professorships at the University of Kiel, the University of Bologna, Beihang University in Beijing, the European Academy of Legal Theory in Brussels, the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences (USTAV), and the University of São Paulo (USP).

His research has been supported by two Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships, an FWO-Odysseus grant, a J.E. Purkyně Senior Research Fellowship (Czech Academy of Sciences), and a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship (EUI, Florence). He is currently the recipient of a three-year Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2025–2028).

Since 2019, George has served on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Legal Theory (IVR). He is editor of Cambridge Elements in Legal Philosophy, general editor of the journal Jurisprudence (Taylor & Francis), and lead editor of the book series Law and Practical Reason (Hart Publishing). He served as a panel member for REF 2021 (Sub-panel 18: Law).

George is a member of the Athens Bar Association although he is currently on permanent leave of absence with them. 

Research interests 

George is currently working on a monograph that develops a radical version of non-positivism—one that does not rely on legal institutions to explain legal obligations. This project is supported by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2025–2028).

During his visit to the Dickson Poon School of Law, George will be affiliated with the Centre for Data Futures. His work in legal philosophy will underpin and supplement aspects of the Centre’s research agenda. By considering democracy not only as the domain of parliaments and courts, his research demonstrates how democratic practices can take root beyond established political institutions. In this way, it offers perspectives that can enrich the Centre’s efforts to embed democratic values into technology and data. His approach aligns with the Centre’s mission to explore how communities might shape the digital infrastructures that govern their lives, particularly through participatory models of data governance and AI systems.

Selected publications 

Pavlakos, G: ‘The Kantian Legal Relation as Radical Non-Positivism’ in Brecher, M. and Hirsch P-A (eds) Law and Morality in Kant (Cambridge University Press, 2025), 195-219.

Pavlakos, G (with T. Marzal): ‘The Principle of Mutual Autonomy and the Question of Applicable Law’ in Michaels, R et al (eds): The Philosophical Foundations of Private International Law (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Pavlakos, G (with S. Chilovi): ‘the Explanatory Demands of Grounding in Law’ Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 103 (2022), 900-933.

Pavlakos, G (with Chilovi, S.): ‘Law-Determination as Grounding’ in Legal Theory, vol. 25 (2019), 53-76

Pavlakos, G: ‘Revamping Associative Obligations’ in S Khurshid et al. (eds), Dignity in the Legal and Political Philosophy of Ronald Dworkin (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2018), 337-360.

Pavlakos, G: ‘Redrawing the Legal Relation’ in J Fabra (ed) Jurisprudence in a Globalised World (Edward Elgar, 2020).

Pavlakos, G: ‘The Proto-Legal Relation: a Normative Compass in a Globalised World’ in E-M. Mbonda & T. Ngosso (eds.) Théories de la justice Justice globale, agents de la justice et justice de genre (Louvain, Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2016), 39-58.

Pavlakos, G. (2007): Our Knowledge of the Law. Oxford and Portland, OR. Hart Publishing. 267 pp.

Teaching interests 

• Legal and Political Philosophy
• Legal Theory
• Metajurisprudence