Rumen Yankov, respected Bulgarian constitutionalist and once president of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Cassation, passed away Sunday after a long illness at the age of 68.

Yankov was born 1942 in Plovdiv. In 1968 he started his carreer as a prosecutor in the town of Peshtera.

He garnered reputation as selflessly devoted to the juridical profession and as advocating a stance that intertwined legal thinking, statehood, reason, and personal conviction.

He presided the Supreme Court 1994-1996 and again 1996-2000. He served as a temporary president to the Constitutional Court in 2003 and then in 2006-2009, after which he retired from service in the high ranks of Bulgaria's judicial system.

Yankov is remembered for his many conflicts on ethical grounds with a number of controversial figures, including controversial Chief Prosecutor Nikola Filchev.

A number of colleagues cherished him for his rigorous thinking and moral integrity.

Justice Yankov will also be remembered for his many eloquently written opinions of dissent, in which he defended statehood and the rule of law against arbitrary legislative encroachments of the powers that be.

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