M. (Manolis) Kotzampasakis

Manolis Kotzampasakis analyzes regulations for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, by combining legal research with interdisciplinary methods and economic insights. His PhD research has focused on the emissions from international maritime transport and, more specifically, on their inclusion in the EU Emissions Trading System. His PhD supervisors are prof. Edwin Woerdman and prof. Frans Nelissen. Manolis' expertise lies in the intersection of international, European, and comparative climate law, aiming to understand how energy transition policies – and particularly carbon pricing regulations – should be designed and implemented to achieve their legislated objectives.

As an Attorney-at-Law, admitted to the Athens Bar Association in Greece since 2016, Manolis has previously worked at law firms specializing in the areas of environmental, energy, and health law, as well as at the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) committee of the European Parliament.

Winner of the NeVER Thesis Award 2021 for the best Energy Law Master's thesis in the Netherlands in the period from 1 January 2017 to 1 September 2020, awarded by the Dutch Energy Law Association (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Energierecht).

In December 2021, Manolis' team won first prize in Baker McKenzie's international competition “Boost Legal Innovation”, by developing a prototype that enables companies to manage their exposure to carbon pricing regulations. In 2023, Manolis co-founded Carbon Glance, a UK-based climate tech startup company that was supported by the University of Edinburgh's Venture Builder Incubator.

In 2024, Manolis completed a research visit at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the United States, supported by a Fulbright Schuman grant.

Selected publications:

- M Kotzampasakis, “Maritime Emissions Trading in the EU: Systematic Literature Review and Policy Assessment”, 165 Transport Policy 28 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.02.014

- M Kotzampasakis and E Woerdman, “The Legal Objectives of the EU Emissions Trading System: An Evaluation Framework”, 13 Transnational Environmental Law 312 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1017/S2047102524000153

- M Kotzampasakis, “Intercontinental Shipping in the European Union Emissions Trading System: A ‘Fifty–fifty’ Alignment with the Law of the Sea and International Climate Law?”, 32 Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 29 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12485

- M Kotzampasakis and E Woerdman, “Linking the EU ETS with California’s Cap-and-Trade Program: A Law and Economics Assessment”, 4 Central European Review of Economics and Management 9 (2020), https://doi.org/10.29015/cerem.898