Art. 1.Biography

Both his parents come from Pontremoli. He moved to Livorno for middle school and still lives there. At the classical lyceum he played in the volleyball team and took an active part in school life; he remembers those years among the best of his life, and the friendships formed then have lasted to this day.

As a young man he was a Scout and later a Scout leader, and found in service and in helping others a true vocation, one that his later work and research on the Third Sector would confirm.

During the same years he studied at the “Pietro Mascagni” Conservatory of Music in Livorno, where he took his diploma in flute and of which he is now President. He then enrolled in Law and, in the meantime, taught music in middle and secondary schools.

He graduated in Law from the University of Pisa in 1982 with a thesis in constitutional law supervised by Professor Alessandro Pizzorusso, and received his PhD in Public Law from the University of Florence in 1987.

From July 1987 to October 1996 he was a researcher in public law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Trento. Since 1 November 1996 he has been a professor at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, where he holds the chair of Constitutional Law.

At Sant'Anna he has served as Deputy Director; for six years as Dean of the Academic Class of Social Sciences; for three years as Director of the Dirpolis Institute (Law, Politics, Development); for six years as Vice-Rector and later as Pro-Rector for student guidance; and as co-coordinator of the interdisciplinary Health Science research centre. From 2022 to 30 June 2025 he sat on the School's Board of Governors. He coordinates the WISS Laboratory (Welfare, Innovation, Services, Development) at the Dirpolis Institute.

He is the author of more than 350 publications in Italian and international journals and edited volumes. He sits on the editorial boards of several journals and book series and coordinates the Forum of Quaderni costituzionali – Rassegna.

He has served as a law clerk (Assistente di studio) at the Italian Constitutional Court and as legal adviser to the Ministry of Health. In July 2006 Parliament in joint session elected him to the list from which the sixteen additional judges of the Constitutional Court are drawn in criminal proceedings against the President of the Republic.

From January 2007 to April 2012 he was a member of the National Agency for Non-Profit Organisations (renamed Agency for the Third Sector in 2011), appointed by the Prime Minister. Since its foundation in 2019 he has chaired the “Maria Eletta Martini” Research Centre on Volunteering and the Third Sector.

A member of the Italian Association of Constitutional Law Scholars, he served three years on its Board. Since June 2025 he has been President of the Gruppo di Pisa, an association of some 500 constitutional scholars. Since 8 September 2022 he has been President of the “Pietro Mascagni” Conservatory of Music in Livorno, an appointment renewed by the Ministry of University and Research for 2025–2028.

In 1996 he married Alessandra, with whom he has three children: Caterina, born in 1997, Niccolò in 2000, and Margherita, the youngest, in 2006. He devotes much of his time to his family and to travel, which he loves and which has taken him around the world.