In Memoriam Prof. Tsvetana Kamenova, DSc

O B I T U A R Y

N O T I C E

On 17 February 2018 passed away

Prof. Tsvetana Nikolaeva Kamenova, DSc

Director of the Institute for Legal Studies (1995 – 2006)

Director of the Institute for the State and the Law
(2012 – September 2016)

Prof. Tsvetana Kamenova, DSc, was born on 8 March 1950 in Sofia.

She graduated from the First English Language School in 1968 and from the Faculty of Law of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" in 1973.

Professor Kamenova's scholarly career was closely linked to the Institute for Legal Studies / Institute for the State and the Law at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where she began work in 1979 after defending a dissertation at the Department of International Law of the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. She has been a professor since 2006, and in 2015 she was awarded the scientific degree of Doctor of Legal Sciences (DSc) after defending a dissertation entitled "International Humanitarian Law (the Challenges at the Beginning of the 21st Century)".

Professor Tsvetana Kamenova was for many years Director of the Institute for Legal Studies / Institute for the State and the Law at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1995 – 2006 and 2012 – September 2016). From 1993 to 1996 she was Scientific Secretary for the Social Sciences of the BAS, and she was a member of the General Assembly of the BAS and its Secretary (2002 – 2006).

She was the author, co-author and editor of 20 books and more than 100 articles published in Bulgaria and abroad on issues of international law – both private and public – European Union law and others, and was one of the first scholars in Bulgaria to work on the problems of intellectual property and copyright.

In August 2005 she was elected by the United Nations General Assembly in New York, with the votes of 157 states, as a judge ad litem of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (2006 to 2009) – a position which, within the UN system, is the highest held to date by a Bulgarian citizen, namely Assistant Secretary General.

Professor Kamenova was one of the founders and the first Dean (1992 – 1999) of the Faculty of Law of Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski".

In addition to the Faculty of Law of Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski", Prof. Kamenova gave lecture courses at New Bulgarian University, the Academy of the Ministry of the Interior, the Diplomatic Institute of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Faculty of Law of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".

From September 2016 she worked at the University of National and World Economy (UNWE), where she also lectured in English.

Abroad, she lectured at the University of San Diego and Columbia University in New York, USA, at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, at the University of Olomouc, Czech Republic, at the University of Siena, Italy, and elsewhere.

Under her supervision, five doctoral students obtained the educational and scientific degree of "Doctor" in legal sciences.

As a distinguished specialist in the field of private international law and public international law, she was elected a member of the Governing Council of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), Rome, from 1994 to 1998, and after 1998 she was an honorary member of the Governing Council of the same institute.

She headed the expert group on the approximation of Bulgarian legislation with European Union law, was a member of the expert commissions at the National Assembly on the amendments to the Constitution in view of the Republic of Bulgaria's membership of the European Union, and a member of working groups at the Ministry of Justice on the ratification of the conventions adopted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

Professor Tsvetana Kamenova has been a member of the Legal Council of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, since 2017, and worked as an expert on United Nations and European Union projects in the field of human rights and legal education (Tajikistan – UNTOP, UNDP; Serbia – Delegation of the European Union).

She was an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry from 1991.

She was a member of the American Society of International Law from 2005, a member of the Executive Committee of the International Law Association, based in London, from 2012, a member of the Executive Committee of the Bulgarian Association of International Law from 2006, and Chair of the Bulgarian Association of Comparative Law.

She served as an international judge within the UN system from 2006 to 2009.

She headed and was a member of more than 10 Bulgarian delegations to intergovernmental international conferences. She was National Representative to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), Vienna.

In 2016 Professor Kamenova was awarded the Badge of Merit of the BAS.

Her colleagues will remember Prof. Kamenova as an established scholar in the field of international law, a good leader who supported the development of young people in science, and a person of dignity.

The funeral service will be held on 22 February 2018 (Thursday) at 12.00 in the ceremonial hall of the Central Sofia Cemetery.

We bow our heads in her bright memory!

From the management of the ISL-BAS