Jiří Přibáň (*1967) hails from Odolena Voda. He attended the Dvořák Grammar School in Kralupy nad Vltavou and then the Faculty of Law of Charles University (1985–1989). In 1990, he joined the faculty as an assistant, eventually earning his associate professorship in 1997, Doctor of Sciences degree in 2001, and full professorship in the fields of legal theory, philosophy, and sociology in 2002. He is a member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, the British Academy of Social Sciences, and Academia Europaea. In 2022, he was awarded the Silver Medal of Antonín Randa by the Union of Czech Lawyers.

During the 1990s, Prof. Přibáň undertook numerous study stays at universities across Europe, the United States, and South Africa. Since 1993, he has collaborated regularly with Cardiff University, where he became a member of the editorial board of the prestigious Journal of Law and Society. Over time, he engaged in both research and teaching at Cardiff, achieving a professorship there in 2006. In 2014, he founded the Centre of Law and Society at Cardiff, which he led until his appointment as a Justice of the Constitutional Court.

He authored dozens of books and hundreds of studies, including Sázka na svobodu [A Bet on Freedom] (2024), Obrana ústavnosti [Defence of Constitutionality] (2014), and a trilogy of dialogues with journalist Karel Hvížďala: Hledání dějin (2018), Hledání odpovědnosti (2021) a Hledání smyslu (2013) [In Search of History; In Search of Responsibility; and In Search of Meaning]. In English, his notable works include a trilogy of monographs on constitutional semantics: Legal Symbolism (2007), Sovereignty in Post-Sovereign Society (2015), and Constitutional Imaginaries (2022), as well as Dissidents of Law (2002), which explores political dissent in communist regimes and its theoretical and philosophical significance.

Prof. Přibáň has served as a visiting professor or research fellow at a number of academic institutions around the world, such as the University of California, Berkeley; New York University; the University of New South Wales in Sydney; the University of Pretoria; the University of San Francisco; the European University Institute in Fiesole; and the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in Brussels. His scientific work has earned him several awards, including The Socio-Legal Theory and History Book Prize from the Socio-Legal Studies Association.

As an independent expert, he has prepared various studies and reports for constitutional and international institutions, such as the House of Lords of the UK Parliament or the United Nations.

Besides his academic work, Prof. Přibáň engages in journalism. During his student years, he actively contributed to the creation and operation of independent student magazines. He regularly contributes to Czech and international media, writing essays on art and culture. In his free time, he travels around Italy, which inspired his 2020 book of essays Italské črty [Italian Sketches], illustrated by painter Jakub Špaňhel. He admires everything from ancient architecture and Tuscan Renaissance to Sicilian cannoli and Neapolitan traffic.

On 25 June 2024, the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, appointed him a Justice of the Constitutional Court.