Prokopios Pavlopoulos was born in 1950 in Kalamata, Greece. In 1968 he was accepted at the Athens Law School from which he graduated, with distinction in 1973, before moving to Paris for postgraduate studies. In 1974 he obtained a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in Public Law from the University Paris II and in 1977 he obtained his PhD (Doctorat d’ État) with distinction. In 1982 he started his academic career at the University of Athens Law School where he was elected Assistant Professor (1983), Associate Professor (1985) and Professor in 1989. Moreover, he taught and conducted research as a visiting Professor at Paris II University (1986).

Among many other works, he is the author of the following: “La directive en droit administrative”, Paris 1978, “The Law and Practice Relating to Pollution Control in Greece” (in collaboration with Dr. Gr. Timagenis) 1982, “The constitutional guarantee of the writ of annulment: A contemporary viewpoint of the rule of law” 1982, “Courses in administrative science” 1983, “The civil liability of the State” vol. I 1986, vol. II 1989, “Guarantees of the right to judicial protection in European community law” 1993, “The public works contract” 1997, “Articles, 1987- 2003” 2003, “Constitutional Reform- looked at from the parliamentary experience” 2010, “The Twilight of Political Leaderships: Cause or effect of the economic crisis?” 2011, “Public Law at the time of economic crisis” vol. I, 2nd edition 2014, “Public Law”, 3rd edition 2015, collective work in collaboration with professors A. Gerontas, S. Lytras, Gl. Siouti and S. Flogaitis.

President Pavlopoulos has also been a very active politician, ever since he held the position of Secretary to the first (interim) President of the Republic, Michael Stassinopoulos (1974-1975). He served as Deputy Minister of the Presidency responsible for the Media and Government Spokesman during the Xenophon Zolotas National Unity Government (1989-1990). In 1990 he was appointed Director of the Presidency’s legal office during the presidency of Konstantinos Karamanlis, a position he held until 1995, while afterwards serving as spokesman of the New Democracy party between 1995-1996. In 1996 he was elected Member of Parliament for the State for the New Democracy party and was head of the party’s Public Administration, Public Order and Justice department (1996-2000). From 2000 to 2014 he was elected to Parliament representing the constituency of Central Athens. He was Parliamentary spokesman for the New Democracy party (2000-2004) and from 2004 until 2009 he served as Minister of the then integrated Ministry of the Interior in the Kostas Karamanlis Government. On February 18, 2015 he was elected President of the Republic with a large majority of 233 votes out of 300.