When I graduated in June 1972, earning marks of 110/110 cum
laude, I was entrusted with conducting class exercises and was
awarded a ministry-funded scholarship and then a research grant.
Then, on 1 November 1977, I took a position as teaching assistant
in legal philosophy at the Bologna University School of Law.
On 1 June 1983, I was appointed associate professor in
legal philosophy at the Bologna University School of the Humanities
(Lettere e Filosofia).
In 1990, I won a competition for a position as full professor
and was assigned to the Modena University School of Law. In 1995, I
transferred to the Bologna University School of Law, where I still
teach philosophy of law and applied ethics for the law school's
magistrale programme and Women and Law for the Master
GEMMA.
I have been a member of CIRSFID since 1986 (which I now
direct); from 2001 to 2006 I coordinated the doctoral programme in
bioethics in Bologna, which in 2006/07 became a section of the
doctoral programme in Law and the New Technologies; from 2007 to 2012 I coordinated the doctoral programme in Law and the New Technologies; from 2014 to 2017 I was a member of the doctoral committee of the doctoral programma in Legal Sciences; currently I am a member of the committee of the doctoral programma in Law, Science and Technology.
From 2002 to
2008 I served in the Bologna University Administrative Council
(Consiglio di Amministrazione), and from 2002 to 2012 I served as a
member of the Giunta. From 2008 to 2015 I was a member of the
University Senate (Senato Accademico).
I sat on the Ethics Committee of the Policlinico
Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna until 2013; on the Bioethics Committee of the Bologna University from 2010 to 2016; on the Ethics Committee of the Milano Statale University from 2013 to 2015 and on the Ethics Committee of the Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli of Bologna to 2017. Currently I sit on the
Ethics Committee of the Area Vasta Emilia Centro (CE-AVEC) della Regione Emilia Romagna.
I am serving as a member of the Permanent Sociology of Law
Commission of the National Centre for Social Defence, of the
Instituto de Derechos Humanos of the Universidad Complutense de
Madrid, and of the Academy of Sciences of the Istituto di Bologna. I was president of the Italian Society of Legal Philosophy (from 2015 to the beginning of 2019) and I coordinate the law and
literature Italian network.
I am editor-in-chief, of Ratio Iuris: An International Journal
of Jurisprudence and Theory of Law and of The Journal of Legal Philosophy; I sit on the directive
committee of the journal Sociologia del Diritto and I
am a member of the editorial board of the Salute e
Societa' , Biodiritto e Responsabilita' medica; have served since 1985
as Italian correspondent for the journal Droit et Societe
- Revue Internationale de Theorie du Droit et de Sociologie
Juridique; from 1983 to 1999, I edited the
Italian section of Current Legal Theory: International Journal
for Documentation on Legal Theory (Bibliography, Abstracts,
Reviews); from 1995 to 1999, I edited the IVR Newsletter.
My research was initially focused on the history of
ideas and on social history, and I then took up issues in legal
philosophy proper.
I started out studying the legal-philosophical thought of
the 16th and 17th centuries (Grotius and Second Scholasticism),
subsequently turning to the 19th and 20th centuries (especially in
Italy, the Scandinavian countries, and the United States), with a
focus on those movements that are geared toward a rejection of
formalism, seeking instead to penetrate the social, psychological,
and political reality of law; and, most recently, I have studied
the developments of the contemporary debate.
I have also concerned myself with the theoretical analysis
of some fundamental legal concepts, such as those of state,
certainty of law, and sources of law, as well as with issues in
anthropology, sociology, bioethics, law and gender, law and
literature.
I have written extensively on all these issues, contributing
withbooks and articles published in journals not only in Italy but
also abroad, testifying to the international relevance of these
studies.
I have participated as a speaker in various national as
well as international conferences and have coordinated national
research projects.
