Maria Kaiafa-Gbandi, Professor

Department of Criminal Law & Criminology

Address: Faculty of Law, ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY THESSALONIKI, Panepistimioupoli, 54124 Thessaloniki/Greece

Telephone: 2310 996497, Fax: 2310 996494, e-mail: kaiafagb@law.auth.gr

Contact hours: Call 2310 996489, Office 205.

She teaches:

On the undergraduate level: Substantive Criminal Law (General Part), Substantive Criminal Law (Special Part), General Theory of Penalties and Elements of Correctional Law, Special Lectures for the In Depth Study of Criminal and Criminal Procedure Law, Criminal Law – Selected Issues of Special Part, Special Criminal Laws.

On the undergraduate level: Substantive Criminal Law, Special Criminal Laws, International and European Criminal Law

Professor Maria Kaiafa-Gbandi graduated from the Law Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She obtained her Ph.D. in Criminal Law from the Georg Augusta Universität zu Göttingen in Germany (1981). She was elected and appointed a Lecturer of Criminal Law at the Law Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1984) and serves as a Professor there since 1996.

She received a scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation throughout her studies, is a permanent fellow of the "Alexander von Humboldt" Foundation (Germany) since 1990 and received a scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation (nominated as a primary candidate) in 2012, with which she has spent a sabbatical as a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School (MA-USA) conducting research in cooperation with Professor Carol Steiker.

She teaches all modules related to Substantive Criminal Law in undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the Law Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Furthermore, she teaches Substantive Criminal Law and European Criminal Law in the National Academy of Judges and Prosecutors.

Prof. Kaiafa-Gbandi has served as a member of the Special Supreme Court (Anonato Eidiko Dikastirio) for three terms: 2004-2005, 2008-2009 and 2012-2013. 

She has also been a member of the University Senate, the Legal Commission (twice), the Research Committee of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and she has repeatedly served as a Director of the Department of Criminal Law & Criminology and as a representative of the Department in the Assembly General of the Law Faculty.

She has been a member of the Committee for the Curriculum of Undergraduate Studies of the Law Faculty (2010-2011, preparation of the new curriculum of undergraduate studies) and also a member of the Committee for the Postgraduate Studies Curriculum since 2004 and serves as its Director since September 2011. She is a member of the Special Interdepartmental Committee and the Coordinative Committee of the Interdepartmental Program of Postgraduate Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki “Modern Medical Practice: Legal Regulation and Bioethics” (awarded by the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and the Faculties of Law and Divinity), and a member of the Coordinative Committee of the Program for Postgraduate Training on “Handling Dependency in the Context of Criminal Correction” carried by the Law Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, K.E.TH.E.A., and the Faculty of Psychiatry of the University of California, San Diego.

She is a member of the Board of the National Academy of Judges and Prosecutors since 2011, as well as a member of the Central Scientific Council for Treating Victimization and Juvenile Delinquency (K.E.S.A.TH.E.A.) since 2010, which functions as a consulting council to the Minister of Justice.

Additionally, she is a member of the Executive Board of the "Research Group of Medical Law and Bioethics" and member of the Administrative Council of the “Dimitris Tsatsos Institute for European Constitutional Studies” of the Law Faculty and the Faculty of Culture and Social Sciences" of Hagen University-Germany (ongoing, since 2008). She has been a founding member of the Network of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki "Modern Medical Practice, Biomedicine and Law" and she has served also as its coordinator. In 2008, she served as a member of the Athletic Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Culture.

She is co-editor of the journal “European Criminal Law Review-EuCLR” (since 2011, www.euclr.eu ) and a member of the Editorial Board of the criminal law journals "Yperaspisi" (1991-2000) and "Poiniki Dikaiosyni" (since 2001). She is also a contributor to the series of Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals. 

Prof. Kaiafa-Gbandi is a member of the Bar Association of Thessaloniki, and of various other scientific bodies such as: the Greek Society of Criminal Law, the Northern Greece Society of Jurists, the Hellenic Criminal Bar Association, the Greek Society of Criminology, the Society of European Jurists, the International Association of Penal Law and the International Academy of Comparative Law.

She has partaken in the Legislative Drafting Committee of the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights for the reformation of the Greek Penal Code (2010-2012) and has therein issued expert reports for various legislation statutes regarding Criminal Law.

Prof. Kaiafa-Gbandi has repeatedly submitted expert rescripts on issues of International and European Criminal Law to the "Institute of International Public Law and International Relations" (Thessaloniki, Greece), various institutions of the European Union (Commission & Parliament), as well as the "European Union Committee of the House of Lords" (United Kingdom).

As a scientific co-ordinator or a member of research groups she has materialised numerous research programmes funded by the European Union("Integra", "Horizon", “Youth” "Daphne", "AGIS", "EPEAK I-III", “CRIMINAL JUSTICE”), Foreign Universitiesor research institutions("European Criminal Policy Initiative I" by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität/Munich; "Principles for the cooperation in criminal matters in the EU" by the Ragnar Söderbergs Stiftelse, Stockholm-Sweden; "Elaboration of a standard evaluation model of the implementation and the impact of EU instruments adopted in the framework of Title VI of the Treaty of the European Union" by the EU-AGIS programm and the ministries of Justice of Belgium and Luxemburg; ”Avoiding and Resolving Conflicts of Criminal Jurisdiction” by the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn and the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Greek State or other institutions ("DIODOS", "EPAFI"). Since the end of 2012 she is in charge of the research program for economic crime and corruption in the public sector in Greece, in the framework of the “Excellence” (Aristeia) action by the Ministry of Education.

She is a peer-reviewer for research programmes of the Dutch Social Science Research Council (Netherlands National Organization for Scientific Research, 2004/2008).

Dr. Kaiafa is the administrating director of various Erasmus/Socrates student exchange programs (Universities: Munich/Germany, Frankfurt am Main/Germany, Passau-Germany, Strasbourg/France, Castilla La Mancha/Spain).

The Professor has also been a member of the group responsible for drafting a Model for European Criminal Justice (co-ordinated by Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. B. Schünemann, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, www.eu-strafrecht-ae.jura.lmu.de ). Also, a founding member of the Academic Research Team of 10 Universities "European Criminal Policy Initiative" (co-ordinated by Prof. H. Satzger, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, www.crimpol.eu ), a fellow of the European Law Institute (ELI, www.europeanlawinstitute.eu ) and a member of the European University Network ECLAN (European Criminal Law Academic Network, www.eclan.eu).

She is director of the series "Publications of Medical Law and Bioethics" (along with Professor E. Kounougeri-Manoledaki and Professor E. Symeonidou-Kastanidou), "Special Criminal Laws" (along with Professor E. Symeonidou-Kastanidou), and “Greek-German Symposiums of Criminal Law” (along with Professor C. Prittwitz/Frankfurt am Main).