Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann was born on 26 August 1945 in Hamburg, Germany. He studied law and economics from 1964-1970 at the Universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, Freiburg (Germany), Geneva and the London School of Economics.
Petersmann worked as a lecturer at the Universities of Hamburg and Heidelberg as well as Research fellow at the Heidelberg Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law from 1971-1978. During this time he became Doctor iuris utriusque (summa cum laude) at Heidelberg University and passed his Second Legal State Examination (Bar Examination). He left to become a Legal Counsellor in the Foreign Trade Department of the German Federal Ministry of Economics, Bonn where he represented Germany as a Delegate in numerous international organisations (e.g. UN, OECD, EC, COCOM). In 1981 he joined the GATT’s Division of Legal Affairs as a Legal Counsellor, a position which he held for the next nine years.
Petersmann returned to academia upon receiving his Habilitation in 1989 for Swiss and German Public Law, European Law and International Law at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). In 1990 he took up the post of Professor of International Law, European Community Law and Swiss Public Law and Director of the Institute of European Law at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). In 1997 he left St. Gallen to become Professor of European and International Law at the University of Geneva. A year later he was appointed as Acting Director of the Geneva Academy of International Economic Law and Dispute Settlement as well as a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for International & Comparative Law of the University of Michigan. In 2001 Petersmann was made joint RSC/EUI Law Chair in International and European Law and Academic Director of the RSC Program for Transatlantic Studies. In 2006 he left this position to become Head of the Law Department and member of the Executive Committee of the European University Institute, Florence. Professor Petersmann has published 26 books/monographs and over 200 articles and book contributions. He has also been the co-editor of the Journal of International Economic Law and of the Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy; former co-editor of other economic and law journals (like World Competition, Swiss Journal of International Economic Relations). Since 1999 Petersmann has been the chairman of the International Trade Law Committee (ITLC) of the International Law Association and of the annual ITLC conferences.