He was born in Messini on 27/07/1903 and died in Athens on 31/10/2002. He studied law at the University of Athens and was awarded a Ph.D in Law in 1934. In 1937 he was appointed Associate Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Athens and in 1943 became a full Professor at the Panteion University, also serving as its rector from 1951 to 1958. In 1929 he entered the judiciary as a rapporteur to the State Council, of which he was President from 1966 to 1969, when he was dismissed after issuing a negative verdict on the legality of the dictatorial regime. In 1952 he served as Minister to the Prime Minister's Office and Labor Minister in the Dimitrios Kiousopoulos administration while in 1958 he served as Minister to the Prime Minister's Office in the Konstantinos Georgakopoulos administration. He was president of the Greek State Radio (EIR) (1951-1953) and Vice-Chairman of the GNO BoD (1959-1964). He was a prolific writer and has published numerous academic papers and literary works, as well as translations of French poetry and prose. In 1968 he was elected a regular member of the Athens Academy of Arts and Letters, serving as its chairman in 1978. He was the first president of the Third Greek Republic (18/12/1974 - 19/07/1975). In 1976-1978 he was appointed national judge at the International Court at The Hague for the court case involving a Greece-Turkey conflict over the continental shelf in the Aegean. In the last years of his life he founded the Michael Stassinopoulos Foundation, aimed at granting scholarships in the Administrative Law field.