Lénárd Darázs - Biography#
Prof. Darázs is an eminent legal scholar and university professor specializing in private law, competition law, and the legal framework of the European data economy. He completed his law degree at ELTE, Budapest (1986–1991), followed by postgraduate studies at Universität Heidelberg with a DAAD scholarship, obtaining an LL.M. degree and later pursuing doctoral research within a prestigious German federal research program. He earned his Ph.D. in 2006 (summa cum laude), and became a habilitated professor (2012) at ELTE.
Since 1994, he has been a full‑time faculty member at ELTE’s Department of Civil Law, becoming a university professor in 2007. His teaching portfolio covers European and Hungarian competition law, consumer protection, contract and corporate law, liability regimes, distribution systems, innovation law, technology regulation, data economy law, and the law of artificial intelligence. He also teaches widely in postgraduate specialist programs, including corporate, commercial, and European business law training.
In 2022, he was awarded the Jean Monnet Chair on Law of the European Data Economy by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program. He also coordinates the interdisciplinary Hungarian Startup University Program across all ELTE faculties.
His academic output includes 91 publications and 612 citations** (MTMT2).
Beyond academia, he has longstanding legal practice experience: he has been a member of the Budapest Bar Association since 1997, served as an arbitrator for the Money- and Stockmarket Committee until its 2018 restructuring, and is an accredited arbitrator on several lists of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Arbitration Court.
Within university governance, Darázs has played a pivotal strategic role. He served as general vice-rector of ELTE since 2017, contributing significantly to institutional management and leading key innovation, habilitation, and ethics committees.
On 24 February 2025, the ELTE Senate elected him as the university’s next rector, to assume office on 1 August 2025. His candidacy emphasized maintaining ELTE’s non‑foundation, state university status while strengthening its position in European research and innovation programs.
