Verica Trstenjak

Verica Trstenjak (born December 9, 1962 ) is a Slovenian Doctor of Laws and Professor of European Law based in Vienna, Austria.

Verica Trstenjak passed her bar exam in 1987 and obtained her doctor's degree at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana in 1995.

She worked as a head of the legal service at the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia between 1994 and 1996, and as State Secretary at the same ministry between 1996 and 2000.

In 1996 she became a professor for Theory of Law and State and Private Law, and in 2006 a full professor (venia legendi) for Civil and European Law.

She was a visiting professor at the universities of Vienna (Universität Wien), Freiburg (Germany) (Universität Freiburg), Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and at the universities in Heidelberg, Bonn, Salzburg, Zürich, Liechtenstein, Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam), Luxembourg, Haag and Ferrara.

She gave various lectures outside the EU at the universities in Sydney, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokio, Seul, Astana, Aruba and New York.

From 1997 to 2000 she was also a leader of the working group 17 for the accession negotiations of Slovenia with EU.

In 2000 she held a post of a Secretary-General of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia.

She has cooperated also with non-governmental organizations in Slovenia and contributed to preparation of Foundations Act.

In 2003 she won a prize of the Association of Slovene Lawyers, 'Lawyer of the Year 2003'.

She worked as a judge at the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (now General Court) from 7 July 2004 to 6 October 2006 and was an Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union from 7 October 2006 to 28 November 2012.

Verica Trstenjak pursued her doctoral studies at the University of Zürich (Universität Zürich), the Institute of Comparative Law of the University of Vienna (Institut für Rechtsvergleichung der Universität Wien), the Max Planck Institute for Private International Law in Hamburg (Max-Planck-Institut für Internationales Privatrecht), and the Free University of Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).

From 2006 to 2012 she has been an Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg (CJEU), from 2004 to 2006 judge of the General Court.

Until 2006 she was a member of the Study Group on a European Civil Code.

She has published more than 300 legal articles and several books on European and private law; she gives speeches at numerous international conferences in Slovenia and abroad (e.g. conferences on Common Frame of Reference (Münster, Osnabrück, Trier); Luxembourg: European Jurists' Forum 2011; Trier: Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Rechtsvergleichung 2011; Berlin: Humboldt-Universität, 2012; Salzburg: 24. Europäische Notarentage, 2012; Barcelona: European Jurists' Forum 2013, Vienna: General Reporter at IACL - International Academy of Comparative Law, 2014; Amsterdam: Keynote Speaker at International Conference of Consumer Law, 2015); Kazakhstan: International Notary Conference, 2018; Madrid: European Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), 2019; Salzburg: European Academy of Science, 2023.

In 2012 she was appointed external scientific member of the newly established Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law in Luxembourg.

After the end of her mandate at the CJEU, she was appointed as a university professor for European law at the University of Vienna, Faculty of Law (limited to five years) in 2013.

Currently, she teaches EU law and fundamental rights at the LL.M. programme of the University of Vienna, at the Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna, University of Ljubljana, New university, Slovenia.

She was a visiting professor at the Masters Study (Litigation in EU Intellectual Property Rights) at the University of Luxembourg until 2013 and University of Maribor.

She teaches at the summer schools in Salzburg (University of Salzburg), Strobl (University of Vienna) and Alpbach (Leopold-Franzens-University-Innsbruck).

She is a member of the Advisory Committee (a kind of arbitration court) of the international law organisation Energy Community (since 2015), Substitute member of the Venice Commission (since 2020) and member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague (since 2019), Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC) (since 2019), International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) (since 2019) and member of the Bureau of the Tribunal at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) (since 2019).

From 2017 until 2022 she was a member of the Management and Executive Board of the FRA - European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

Member of Editorial boards of a number of legal periodicals in Slovenia and abroad:

Member of Scientific boards:

Member of a number of Lawyers' Associations:

In 2020 she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st Class by the Federal President Dr. Alexander Van der Bellen for her exceptional scientific merits in the field of EU law and for her contribution to the deepening of relations between Austria and Slovenia.

Hans-Wolfgang Micklitz, professor at the European University Institute in Florence, named Verica Trstenjak as "the founding mother of European private law."

1. Consumer protection

2. Social and labour law

3. Intellectual property law

4. Corporate law

5. Public procurement

6. Immigration and asylum law

7. Health policy

8. Other