Judge Demetrios Hadjihambis was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Exeter in 2012.

Graduate is President of the Supreme Court of Cyprus

Law graduate and former Exeter academic Judge Demetrios Hadjihambis is currently President of the Supreme Court of Justice.

Demetrios, who has also been an ad hoc Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, will continue the Presidency until his retirement late this year.

He graduated in 1968, going on to take a PhD at Cambridge. Afterwards, he returned to his native Cyprus, setting up his own chambers in 1973. He spent five years teaching at Exeter from 1974.

On his return to Cyprus he resumed law practice and was asked to sit on the bench in 1982. He stayed with the District Court for 17 years and was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court in 1999.

He was appointed President of the Supreme Court last year.

“The role of President is similar to the work I’ve carried out in the Supreme Court before but has more of an administrative function,” he said. “I am enjoying the role enormously and still enjoy the bench some 33 years after joining!”

Demetrios also has a love of literature and has translated and published works from English into Greek : Rupert Brooke, selection from the Poems and Letters, Oscar Wilde, selection and adaptation from Dorian Gray, Omar Khayam, selection and adaptation from the Quatrains and most recently The Golden Sayings, The Pythagorean Philosophy of Life.

He has also written his own poems, 100 Love Couplets written in the Cypriot Dialect. He researched and wrote The Supreme Court of Cyprus and its Judges which was published by the Supreme Court in 2010.

He has also held positions as the General Secretary and Chairman of the Evagoras Athletic Association of Famagusta.

Demetrios was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Exeter in 2012.

Date: 27 January 2014