Giuliano Amato, Judge of the Italian Constitutional Court, to Give Dean’s Lecture on September 29, 2015

Judge Giuliano Amato, former Prime Minister of Italy and judge of the Italian Constitutional Court, will be in conversation with Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law Guido Calabresi ’58, as part of the 2015–16 Dean’s Lectures on September 29. The lecture will take place in the Faculty Lounge at 12:10 p.m.

Bruce Ackerman ’67, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, will moderate the conversation on “The Judges' Job: Protecting Liberty or Equality?”

“At a recent presentation of my book, Il Mestiere di Giudice (The Judges' Job), at the Consiglio di Stato in Rome, Giuliano Amato thoughtfully criticized the book’s seeming reluctance to have judges defend values based on liberty unless these are violated only for some, that is, in a non-egalitarian way,” says Calabresi. “The setting was not one in which we could explore the issues in any depth. We both thought it would be fun and interesting to dig deeper. This Dean’s Lecture is the result.”

Giuliano Amato was a member of the Italian Parliament for 18 years. He was Under Secretary to the Prime Minister’s office, Minister for the Treasury, Minister for Constitutional Reforms, Minister of Interior, Deputy Prime Minister, and Prime Minister (in 1992–1993 and 2000–2001). He also headed the Italian Antitrust Authority from 1994 to 1997, was vice-president of the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002–2003), and chairman of the International Commission on the Balkans, sponsored in 2005 by the Bosch Stiftung, the German Marshall Fund, the King Baudouin Foundation, and the C.S. Foundation. Currently he is a judge of the Italian Constitutional Court.

In 2002 Judge Amato was elected Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written books and articles on the economy and public institutions, European antitrust, personal liberties, comparative government, and European integration.