Samantha Besson holds a law degree from the University of Fribourg (1996), an LLM in European and Comparative Law from the University of Oxford (1998) and a Doctorate in Law from the University Fribourg (1999) and earned her post-doctoral habilitation from the University of Bern (2004). She is one of Switzerland’s most internationally recognised contemporary legal scholars.
Besson worked as assistant at the University of Fribourg (1996-1997), completed a research stay at the University of Oxford (Balliol College, 1997-1998), where she wrote her doctoral thesis. She completed an internship with the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg in 1999. Her post-doctoral research led to earning her habilitation in 1999 after being a Visiting Research Fellow at Columbia Law School in New York before staying at the University of Oxford from 2000 to 2004 in the position of Senior Research Associate. In October 2004 she returned to the University of Fribourg to become an Associate Research Professor for the Swiss National Science Foundation research project (Project for a European Philosophy of European Law).
Since 1 October 2005 Besson has been a Professor of Public International Law and European Law and Chair of Public International Law and European Law at the University of Fribourg. Besson first taught as lecturer in 2001, and as professor has since been invited to Oxford University (2001-2004), Geneva (2002-2005), Zurich (2008-2010), Duke (2009), Lausanne (2010), Lisbon (2010-) and Harvard (2014, Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Visiting Professor of Law). She has also taught in various capacities at the Academy of International Law in The Hague (Coordinator Refresher Courses 2009-2013 practitioners and Director of Studies 2013). Since 2020 she has been Distinguished Professor of International Law at the College de France in Paris.
Samantha Besson is a member of: the Swiss Section of the International Commission of Jurists, the Council of the UN Academic Platform Switzerland, the European Communities Studies Association Switzerland, the Scientific Committee Master PLEP at the University of Berne and the Scientific Council of the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law and of the Swiss Academy of Sciences. An international academic, Besson is a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Nantes, and a member of many other associations including the Swiss International Law Association, the Swiss Association of European Law, the Swiss Lawyers Association, the Swiss Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, the International Association of Constitutional Law, the European Society of International law, the American Society of International Law and the Swiss Association of Women Lawyers.