Meet the Authors: The Italian Influence on European Law

The Italian Influence on European Law: Judges and Advocates General (1952-2000), edited by Daniele Gallo, Roberto Mastroianni, Fernanda G Nicola and Lorenzo Cecchetti (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024) is a collection of essays written by Italian and European scholars and judges which examines the legal biographies of the Italian judges and advocates general at the Court of Justice of the European Union and their influence on the shaping of the European legal order. The book sheds light for the first time on the ways in which Italian judges and advocates general introduced innovative legal concepts and doctrines and shaped legal practice within the Court. The essays reconstruct the educational, personal and professional background of each judge and advocate general, their influence on jurisprudence and the formal and informal networks in which they were involved.

The volume also addresses important methodological issues in writing European legal history from a national perspective. What constitutes an 'Italian legal tradition'? How to measure its influence on the EU? How can comparative, institutional and sociological arguments be integrated with historical findings? Members of the research field 'Legal History of the European Union' invite all those interested to discuss these and other questions with some of the contributors to the volume, Amedeo Arena (University of Naples), Lorenzo Cecchetti (KU Leuven), Fernanda Nicola (American University) and Antoine Vauchez (Sorbonne University, Max Planck Law Fellow).​