Dimitris Babiniotis

Practice Areas

Asc. Professor Dimitris Babiniotis serves as head of our Litigation & Arbitration practice. Dimitris' practice focuses on complex state court litigation and commercial arbitration, both domestic and international.

Litigation: Dimitris is widely recognized as a leading authority in appellate and cassation litigation. Having written extensively in these areas, he is regularly instructed by clients from all sectors of the market, irrespective of the nature and subject matter of their disputes, to deal with the highly sophisticated procedural issues involved in proceedings before the Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court. In this context, Dimitris has acted as lead counsel representing corporate clients in a wide range of commercial and corporate disputes in both domestic and cross-border contexts. These include, but are not limited to, shareholder disputes, free and unfair competition disputes before state courts, consumer disputes including pharmaceutical disputes, disputes arising out of complex commercial transactions such as M&A transactions, financing transactions and distribution and agency agreements. He has also represented corporate clients in a wide variety of tort disputes, including business defamation, employment torts, and directors' and officers' liability claims.

Arbitration: Dimitris has acted as lead counsel in a large number of complex international and domestic commercial arbitration proceedings. His practice encompasses disputes in all major industry sectors, namely construction and infrastructure, energy and financial services. Dimitris has also represented corporate clients in numerous arbitrations involving the Greek State or Greek state-owned entities in disputes arising out of public contracts.

Arbitration-related litigation: Dimitris is widely regarded as an authority on arbitration-related litigation, having served as lead counsel in numerous proceedings for the annulment, recognition, and enforcement of arbitral awards before Greek state courts. He has also successfully represented international clients in compelling arbitration when litigation had been improperly initiated against them in Greek state courts. Dimitris is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court.

Dimitris is an Associate Professor at the Law School of the Democritus University of Thrace, where he teaches civil procedure and arbitration at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His scholarly work encompasses arbitration, Supreme Court litigation (the law of cassation), appellate procedure, the binding effect of state court decisions and arbitral awards and the standards of judicial review of arbitral awards.

He serves on the editorial boards of Greece's two most prestigious procedural law journals: the "Review of Procedural Law” and “Chronicles of Procedural Law”.

Dimitris was appointed to serve as the official ambassador for the Vienna International Arbitration Centre (VIAC) in Greece.

Education

Democritus University of Thrace Law School (Ph.D.)

Harvard Law School (LL.M.)

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Law School (LL.B.)

Selected publications

Books

Formal requirements for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards under the New York Convention, Sakkoulas Publications, Athens – Thessaloniki, 2022.

The devolutive effect of the appeal and the subject matter of appellate proceedings, Sakkoulas Publications, Athens – Thessaloniki, 2016.

The substitution of the Court’s reasoning in the law of cassation, Ant. N. Sakkoulas, Athens – Komotini, 2009.

The notion of “necessarily determined” prejudicial issues under article 331 of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure Code, Doctoral Dissertation, Ant. N. Sakkoulas, Athens – Komotini, 2008.

Articles

On Compétence-Compétence and the most unfortunate recent provision of article 870Α of the Code of Civil Procedure, Chronicles of Procedural Law, 2025, pp. 25 - 71.

Case Note: Greek Supreme Administrative Court Extends CJEU’s Achmea and PL Holdings Jurisprudence to Contract-Based Arbitration, in Nikos Lavranos and Loukas A. Mistelis (eds), European Investment Law and Arbitration Review, Kluwer Law International 2024, Volume 9, Issue 2, pp. 353 – 362.

The applicability of Rome regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations ((EC) No 593/2008) (Rome I) to international commercial arbitration in Liber Amicorum Calavros, 2023, pp. 821 – 872.

The prohibition of reformatio in peius in appellate proceedings in “Appellate Trial under the Code of Civil Procedure”, Hellenic Association of Procedural Law (ed.), Sakkoulas Publications, Athens – Thessaloniki, 2021, 201 – 353.

Arbitrator Challenge Proceedings: Impartiality Challenges Based on Previously Published Legal Opinions, in “Prevailing Principles of Fairness, Finality and Public Policy in International Commercial Arbitration”, Publication of the Hellenic Association of Arbitration, 2018, p. 65 et seq.

The Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards Annulled at the Seat of Arbitration, Arbitration 2018, 20 – 95.

The Binding Effect of Arbitral Findings of Fact on State Courts in Set-Aside Proceedings Based on Public Policy Violations, EPP 2017.327 et seq.

Dimitris has authored more than 70 case commentaries in leading legal publications.

Languages

Greek

English

German