Panos is Professor of EU and International Economic Law at Tilburg University since 2013. In the period 2011-23, he served as the Director of the Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC), an interdisciplinary Center of Excellence of some 40 researchers, the biggest of its kind in Europe, studying the governance of economic activity. Panos co-led the research cluster on 'Institutions' within the TILEC Research Program 2018-2023 and TILEC's work on standardization, competition and innovation. Panos leads the cluster on standardization research and education at the Tilburg Institute on Law and Technology (TILT).

In the academic year 2015-16, Panos was a visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School and a Fellow with the Program on International Financial Systems, on research leave from Tilburg University. Since 2017, Panos is a Member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL).

In December 2016, he was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant (2 million Euros), the most prestigious mid-level personal grant at the EU level, for his research project on the resilience of non-State regulatory bodies.

Panos' research focuses on the comparative regulation of services industries, EU economic regulation, issues of transnational governance and the regulation of international trade in the digital age, including institutional and substantive questions relating to WTO law. Currently, he is interested in the institutional and substantive aspects of standardization, financial regulation and sustainability, using interdisciplinary methods. Panos has also consulted with governments and companies on those topics and has had speaking engagements in academic institutions on various occasions. 

Panos' work has appeared in top refereed international and European journals. His most recent research papers are available on SSRN and on ResearchGate and announced on X (@panosdelimatsis).

Panos is the author of 'International Trade in Services and Domestic Regulations - Necessity, Transparency, and Regulatory Diversity' (International Economic Law Series, Oxford University Press, 2007). He also co-edited several collective volumes, including 'The Prospects of International Trade Regulation' (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and 'Financial Services at the Crossroads - Implications for Supervision, Institutional Design and Trade' (Kluwer Law International, 2011). More recently, he edited a comprehensive book on 'The Law, Economics and Politics of International Standardization', published by Cambridge University Press in 2015 and a Research Handbook on Climate Change and Trade, published by Edward Elgar in 2016. In 2021, he published the Encyclopedia on Trade and Environmental Law (Edward Elgar, jointly with Leonie Reins). On investment law, he co-edited a book on State Capitalism (Hart, 2023) and one on new technologies and digitalization (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

He studied law in Greece, Germany, and Switzerland. Panos has taught EU trade law, EU external relations and international trade regulation for more than twenty years and welcomes PhD proposals in those areas, in particular topics relating to the regulation of services industries in relation to the EU internal market (including digital trade/e-commerce); comparative takes on the interaction between the EU and the WTO; the EU external action on economic issues; and the WTO institutional and regulatory aspects. Topics regarding sectoral approaches on digital regulation, broader issues of economic security in the EU and globally, and law and political economy analyses on private regulation are very welcome.

Aug 2015-July 2016: Fellow, Program on International Financial Systems, Harvard Law School, USA

Feb 2014-June 2020: Gastprofessor (visiting professor), Europa-Institut, University of Saarland, GERMANY

Since Aug 2013: Professor of Law, Chair of European and International Trade Law, Tilburg University, THE NETHERLANDS

Since Sep 2011: Director, Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC), Tilburg University, THE NETHERLANDS

Feb-June 2011: Guest Professor, teaching "Public International Law" and "International Economic Law", University of Lausanne, SWITZERLAND

Since Dec 2010: Associate Professor of Law and TILEC, Tilburg University, THE NETHERLANDS

Feb-June 10: Guest Professor, teaching "WTO Law" and "EU External Relations", University of Neuchâtel, SWITZERLAND

Feb 08-Nov 10: Assistant Professor of Law and TILEC (tenure track), Tilburg University, THE NETHERLANDS

Since March 06: Senior Research Fellow and MILE International Faculty; World Trade Institute (WTI), Berne, SWITZERLAND

Nov 04-April 05:Intern with the Appellate Body Secretariat, World Trade Organisation (WTO), Geneva, SWITZERLAND

Nov 04-Feb 06:Legal Researcher at the International Center for Sports Studies (Centre International d'Etude du Sport; 50%), Neuchâtel, SWITZERLAND

Feb 03: Attorney-at-Law, Member of the Lawyers' Bar (on leave since August 2008), Thessaloniki, GREECE

Oct 02-June 06: Research and Teaching Assistant (50%), Chair of European, Public International & WTO Law, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, SWITZERLAND

My teaching focuses on the EU trade law (as reflected in the functioning of the EU internal market) and the role of the EU as a leading global actor. Global trade law complements my main teaching tasks. I use comparative law methods in my teaching and take a case-law-based approach during my lectures and seminars. I am particularly interested in deciphering the normative force of soft law and the rules of private ordering regimes inspired by the law and economics literature.

Click here for my courses.

1. Elena Aydos, Who is not Paying the Carbon Price? THe Subsidisation of Heavy Polluters undder Emissions Trading Schemes (2013-2016)
2. Safari Kasiyanto, Essays on Regulating the Retail Payment Systems (2013- 2016)
3. Venetia Argiropoulou, Investor's Rights in Case of Sovereign Default (2014-2018)
4. George Comnenus, Protectionism in the Era of Globalization: The Misuse of Anti-Dumping Instruments from a European Perspective (2014-2020)
5. Olia Kanevskaia, International Aspects of Standardization: A Comparative Study of International Standard-Setting Procedures of the Organized International Standard-Setting Bodies and Private Consortia (2015-2020)
6. Olga Hrynkiv, Revisiting the Scope of the Security Exception under WTO and Investment Law (2018-2023)
7. Shanya Ruhela, The Resilience of Standard-Setting Bodies in Finance: the Case of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (2018-2023)
8. Leo Gargne, The Integration of Sustainability Considerations in the EU Free Trade Agreements (2020-2025)

PENDING

1. Piergiuseppe Pusceddu, International Standardization and Economic Governance in the ICT Sector: an Asian Perspective (2017-)
2. Zuno Verghese, The Resilience of Standard-Setting Bodies in ICT Standardization: Crises and Evolution (2018-)
3. Pratham Ajmera, Standardization and Certification in IoT Security and Privacy (2023-) 

EXTERNAL PHD ASSESSMENTS

1. Andrea Barrios Villarreal, ‘International Standardization and the WTO’ (part of the 3-member PhD Committee; thesis officially supervised by Professor Joost Pauwelyn at the Graduate Institute, Geneva; now published by Cambridge University Press) (2017)
2. Yuting Hua, ‘China’s Legal Obligations in the Field of Foreign Investment: How Trade Agreements Influence the Formation of Investment Agreements?’ (part of 4-member PhD committee; thesis officially supervised by Professors Petros Mavroidis and Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, EUI, Florence) (2017)
3. Amalie Giødesen Thystrup, ‘Governing Trade in Services – Transforming Rulemaking and Trade Integration’ (part of 4-member PhD committee; thesis officially supervised by Professor Joanna Jemielniak, University of Copenhagen) (2018)
4. Nishara Mendis, ‘National Policy Space in the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, with Special Reference to Public Health Services’ (part of a 4-member PhD committee; thesis officially supervised by Professor Peter van der Bossche, University of Maastricht) (2020)
5. Natalya Spuling, ‘Regional Insolvency Framework for ASEAN’ (part of a 4-member PhD committee; thesis officially supervised by Professors Joe McCahery and Eric Vermeulen, Tilburg University) (2021)
6. Tihitina Getnet, ‘FDI for Development in Ethiopia’ (part of a 4-member PhD committee; thesis officially supervised by Professor Morag Goodwin and Dr Angelos Dimopoulos, Tilburg University) (2021)
7. Anran Zhang, ‘Knocking on Arbitrators’ Doors: Legal Standing of Controlled Entities in Investment Arbitration’ (part of a 4-member PhD Committee; thesis supervised by Yuwen Li and Michael Faure, Erasmus University Rotterdam) (2021)
8. Irene Kamara, 'Data Protection Standardisation. The role and limits of technical standards in EU data protection law', part of a 7-member PhD Committee; thesis supervised by Paul de Hert and Eleni Kosta, Tilburg University) (2021)
9. Marie Gerardy, ‘The “Standards Effects”: The Public Instrumentalisation of Technical Standards in EU Law’ (part of a 4-member PhD committee; thesis supervised by Professor Joana Mendes, University of Luxemburg) (2023)
10. Maryam Pourrahim, ‘Access to Standard-Essential Patents and Competition Law: Patent Pools, Licensing in IoT Value Chains and Dispute Resolutions’, (part of a 4-member PhD committee; thesis officially supervised by Professor Giorgio Monti, Tilburg University) (2024)
11. Helen Mukiri-Smith, ‘Extracting and exploiting vulnerability: case studies on the impact, governance and regulation of Fintech and digital identity systems in Kenya and markets that arise from their use’ (part of a 4-member PhD committee; thesis officially supervised by Professors Morag Goodwin and Linnet Taylor, Tilburg University) (2024)