Biography
Pēteris Zilgalvis is a Judge on the General Court of the European Union, appointed now for his second term until 2031. He was elected as a Member of the General Court’s Management Board (2022-2025) and is a member of the Artificial Intelligence Management Board of the Court of Justice of the EU. Previously, he was the Head of Unit for Digital Innovation and Blockchain in the Digital Single Market Directorate in the European Commission and was the Co-Chair of the European Commission FinTech Task Force. He was the Visiting EU Fellow at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford and was an Associate of Political Economy of Financial Markets there. Prior to that he was Deputy Head of the Bioethics Department in DG Legal Affairs at the Council of Europe. Earlier, he was Senior Environmental Law Advisor to the World Bank/Russian Federation Environmental Management Project and was a Regional Environmental Specialist at the World Bank. His career started shortly after graduation in 1990 in the Latvian ministries of environment and then of foreign affairs. He completed his J.D. at the University of Southern California in 1990 and his B.A. in Political Science Cum Laude at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1986. He has been a member of the California State Bar since 1991. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters of books on innovation law and policy, artificial intelligence and the law, environmental law, bioethics and EU law. He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law and has also been a Member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Digital Currency Governance Consortium, of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Blockchain Expert Policy Advisory Board and of the Advisory Board of the University of Cambridge Judge Business School Programme on FinTech and Regulatory Innovation.
