People

Domenico Amirante is Full Professor of Italian and Comparative Public Law and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Comparative Law and Processes of Integration at Faculty of Political Science, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy. He was Director of the Ph.D. Program on Italian and Comparative Public and Environmental Law at University of Naples II from 2001 to 2010. He was visiting professor/research fellow in several Universities in France (Montpellier, Nantes, Limoges), Belgium (Louvain-la-Neuve) and India (NLSIU Bangalore, DSE New Delhi, University of Bombay). His main research/teaching topics are Comparative Law, Environmental law, Heritage law, Federalism, Local government and administration, Constitutional Courts. Among his many publications, he has recently edited (with S. Bagni) the volume: Environmental Constitutionalism in the Anthropocene, London-New York, Routledge, 2022.

Silvia Bagni is currently Associate Professor of Comparative Public Law in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her research interests include Latin American constitutionalism and ecological law. She is a member of the UN Harmony with Nature Programme.

Professor A.J. Bellia is the O’Toole Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Notre Dame. He has published extensive works on constitutional law, federalism, legal history, and United States courts. His works include The Law of Nations and the United States Constitution (Oxford University Press 2017) (with Bradford R. Clark), Federalism (2d ed., Aspen/Wolters Kluwer 2017), and many journal articles. He is a member of the American Law Institute and was the founding director of the Notre Dame Program on Constitutional Structure. Prior to joining the Notre Dame faculty, Professor Bellia clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, and practiced law in Washington, D.C.  Bellia earned his J.D. summa cum laude from the Notre Dame Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Notre Dame Law Review.

 Marco Borraccetti, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of European Union Law at Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Department of Political Science.

He is Rector’s delegate for international agreements and networks and for university corridor for refugees and co-director of ERMA - European Regional MA Programme in Democracy and Human Rights in South East Europe.

His current main research interests include migration, trafficking in human beings and human rights; the judicial protection of fundamental rights in the EU.

He was Visiting Scholar Monash University, Faculty of Law (2020), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, European Union Center (2015), and Visiting Professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles – Institut d’Etudes Européennes (2011).

Paolo Carozza is Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. His expertise is in the areas of comparative constitutional law and human rights law, and he is currently the U.S. member of the Venice Commission.

Carlo Guarnieri graduated in Political Sciences at the University of Florence and has been, until 2016, professor of Italian Political System in the Faculty of Political Sciences of University of Bologna. He taught also at the University of Calabria, the High School of Public Administration in Rome, the University of California, Berkeley, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris and the University of Montpellier. He was Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences (1997-2000) and Head of the study program in Political Sciences (2001- 2007) and of the Center of Judicial Studies (until 2016). He was also member of the editorial committee of the Rivista italiana di scienza politica (1980-2000) and of the Training and Study Office of the Council of State (2011-2017). Between 2014 and 2018 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Political Science Association.

William K. Kelley teaches constitutional law and administrative law, and focuses on public law issues. From 1991-1994, Kelley served as assistant to the solicitor general at the Department of Justice in Washington; and he joined the faculty in 1995 after practicing with two major law firms. From 2005-2007, he served in the White House as Deputy Counsel to the President. Kelley has been appointed to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (the "Standing Committee") in September 2015.

Jeffrey Pojanowski joined the faculty and community of Notre Dame Law School in 2010 and was promoted to full professor in 2015. He teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, jurisprudence, legal interpretation, and torts. He also serves as co-editor of The American Journal of Jurisprudence. He has served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and has taught classes at Trinity College (Dublin) and the University of Navarre.

Pojanowski earned his A.B. in Public Policy with highest honors from Princeton University and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2004, where he was Articles Co-Chair for the Harvard Law Review. After law school, he served as a law clerk to then-Judge John Roberts on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then to Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court of the United States. He then practiced law with Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in appellate litigation and administrative-law matters.

Giada Ragone is assistant professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Milan, where she teaches Comparative Constitutional Justice, Constitutional Law & Technological Innovations, Welfare State & new social rights and, Right to vital goods.

Sabrina Ragone is an Associate Professor of Comparative Public Law of the Department of Political and Social Sciences, where she holds the post of Coordinator for International Relations.

She is Senior Research Affiliate of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg), where she pursued her research between 2015 and 2017. Previously, she was García Pelayo Fellow at the Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales – Madrid (2012-2015) and researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (2011-2012).

She is a member of the Advisory Board of the “Initiative on Global Law and Policy for the Americas” (GLPA), University of Houston Law Center Faculty, of the Scientific Committee of Istituto Cattaneo and of the Scientific Committee of the University’s “Collegio Superiore”.

Michele Sapignoli is Professor of Political Science at the University of Bologna. He earned a doctorate in Social and Political Science Methodology at the Sapienza University in Rome. His fields of interest include survey methodology, legal studies and judicial systems. He teaches or has taught courses in Research Methodology; Social Research Statistics; Judicial Behaviour and Judicial Organization; Italian Politics; Comparative Judicial Systems; Justice, Politics and Society.  

JEFFREY S. SUTTON is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  He has served as Chair of the Federal Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure and as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules.  He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and as the Commissioner of the Supreme Court Fellows Program.  Since 1993, Chief Judge Sutton has been an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University College of Law, where he teaches seminars on State Constitutional Law, the United States Supreme Court, and Appellate Advocacy.  He also teaches a class on State Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School.  Among other publications, he is the author of Who Decides? States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation and 51 Imperfect Solutions:  States and the Making of American Constitutional Law.  He is the co-author of a casebook, State Constitutional Law:  The Modern Experience, as well as The Law of Judicial Precedent.  He is also the co-editor of The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law.  In 2006, Chief Judge Sutton was elected to the American Law Institute, and in 2017 he was elected to its Council. 

Luca Pietro Vanoni is Associate Professor of Comparative Public Law at University of Milan, where he teaches American Constitutional Law and Comparative. He was visiting research fellow at City University of London and at Notre Dame University, and he’s the Italian editor of the American Society of Comparative Law. His research interests lie in the area of Law and Religion, Immigration Law, Separation of Powers and Federalism. He authored or coauthored several works both in Italian and in English.

Lorenza Violini is full professor of Constitutional and Public Comparative Law and a member of the Academic Senate at the University of Milan. In 2022 L.V. has been appointed President of Interministerial Commission for Agreements with Religious Confessions.

Nicolò Zanon was born in Torino (1961). He was appointed to the Constitutional Court by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, and was sworn in on November 11, 2014. From that time, he has served as a Constitutional Judge.

He has been appointed as Vice President on January 2022.

From 1996 to 1997 he clerked for Justice Valerio Onida at the Constitutional Court in Rome.

In November of 1999, following his selection through a public competition, he joined the Law Faculty of the Università degli Studi, the State University of Milan, as a Professor of Constitutional Law. He has been Full Professor of Constitutional Law there since 2002.

Professor Zanon has also served in a variety of important institutional roles in his career. From April 2009 to July 2010 he was a member of the Consiglio di Presidenza della Giustizia Amministrativa, following his election to that post by the Senate of the Republic. In July 2010 he was elected by the joint session of the Parliament to be a non-judicial member of the High Council of the Judiciary (Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura), a role he held until 25 September 2014. During that time, on 11 June 2013, the President of the Council of Ministers appointed him to the Committee of Experts to advise on the constitutional reforms.

He has authored, co-authored, or edited 18 books and published more than 150 articles and essays in academic journals.

His most noteworthy books include:

-       Il libero mandato parlamentare: saggio critico sull’articolo 67 della Costituzione, Giuffré, Milano, 1991;

-       L’exception d’inconstitutionnalité in Francia: una riforma difficile, Giappichelli, Torino, 1990.