26 Oct 09

Professor Vernon Bogdanor honoured by the French President

Professor Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Politics and Government in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University, has been awarded the Légion d'Honneur (national Order of the Legion of Honour).

The decoration of Chevalier dans l'Ordre Nationale de la Legion d'Honneur was awarded by a decree of the French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Professor Bogdanor is received in the légion to the class of chevalier (knight). According to the citation, the award is in recognition of  'votre action dans les domaines du droit et de l'histoire entre nos deux pays ainsi que votre engagement dans la défence de la construction européene' (your work in the field of the law and history of our two countries and in the building of Europe).

Professor Bogdanor is a Fellow of Brasenose College at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. In 1998 he was awarded a CBE for contributions to constitutional history, and in November 2008 he was honoured with the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies.

Abroad, Professor Bogdanor was invited to deliver the annual Winston Churchill Memorial lecture in Luxembourg in March 2009 on the subject of 'Churchill and Europe'. Professor Bogdanor has been an adviser on constitutional matters to the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Romania, Slovakia and Trinidad. He was also a member of the advisory team established by the CSCE (Commission on Security and Co-operation in Europe) to draw up a charter for minorities, and a constitution for Kosovo.

Key policy makers and members of the judiciary both in the UK and abroad have sought his advice on a range of different subjects, and he is frequent political commentator in the newspapers and broadcast media.

Vernon Bogdanor is currently an Emeritus Professor of Law at Gresham College, London, and a Visiting Professor of Law at King's College, London, as well as holding a professorship at Oxford University.  

The Légion d'Honneur or Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur is the highest decoration in France. Professor Bogdanor is due to receive the order from the French Ambassador to the UK, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne.