Eivind SMITH is a Professor of Public Law at the University of Oslo (Norway), where he serves as well as Director of the Research Group on Constitutional Studies. He chairs the Division for Humanities and Social sciences of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, is a member of the Law Section committee of the Academia Europaea, the European Group of Public Law, the Groupe d‘Etudes et de Recherches sur la Justice Constitutionnelle (France), the Societas Iuris Publici Europaei (SIPE), the International Academy of Comparative Law, etc.

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Constitutional Law and Chair of its Round Table Commission. He is a dr. h.c. from the University of Uppsala (Sweden) and Officier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (France).

Eivind Smith is a Vice-chair of the Group of independent experts on the European Charter of Local Self- Government (Council of Europe), has been visiting scholar/professor etc. in more than 30 countries and served as chair for a number of domestic governmental and parliamentary commissions. He has published a large number of books and articles on domestic and comparative Constitutional and Administrative law (see further in http://folk.uio.no/esmith/publikasjoner.html).