Holder of an aggregation of higher education in public law (2004) and philosophy (1993),  Mikhaïl Xifaras is a doctor of philosophy (thesis prize of the University of Besançon, 2001). He is also a graduate of École Normale Supérieure in Fontenay-Saint Cloud (1990). Before joining Sciences Po, he was a professor of public law at the University of Orleans, a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (Chair of Philosophy of Law 2006-2011), visiting researcher at the Center of Humanities of the University of Kyoto (Japan, 2008), visiting scholar at the Perelman Center and laureate of the ULB International Openness Prize (Brussels, 2003), Marie-Curie Fellow (European Commission, 2003), Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School, laureate of a Fulbright Scholarship (2000), and winner of a grant from the Thiers Foundation (1999).