SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Susanna Cafaro, Saverio Di Benedetto, Marti Grau Segu, Mariano Longo, Luigi Melica, Claudia Morini, Valerie Saintot.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Silvia Solidoro, Elisabetta Marzo, Nadia Perrone, Isabella Salsano, Francesco Viggiani, Jacopo Lillo, Ozan Yildrim.
BIOS SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
SUSANNA CAFARO
Susanna Cafaro is Full Professor of European Union Law at University of Salento (Italy) and she has been awarded in 2019 a Jean Monnet Chair whose title is “Legal Theory of European Integration: a Supranational Democracy Model?”. She is the organizer of the Supranational Democracy Dialogue, an event aimed at bringing together scholars from any background, NGO leaders and political activists, businessmen and innovative thinkers to discuss together the big challenges facing humanity. She is member of the scientific committes of the journals Revue de l'Euro; Perspectives on Federalism; Athena, Critical Enquiries in Law, Philosophy and Globalization and of the Scientific Committee of CesUE Centro Studi Formazione Comunicazione e Progettazione sull’Unione europea e la Global Governance. She has authored and edited numerous books and more than 70 scholarly journal articles and book chapters about the EU’s institutional frame, the European economic and monetary union, the EU external relations, the global economic governance and Euro-Mediterranean relations.
SAVERIO DI BENEDETTO
Associate Professor of International Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, and former Full Researcher with the same University (2006-2015), he authored three books and several academic articles in both national and international peer-reviewed journals on a wide variety of subjects, including international investment and trade law, international environmental law, and global governance. Co-editor of the Springer Book Series on ‘Legal Issues on Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies’ (since 2015) and of the ESI Book Series on ‘Legal Culture and International Flows’ (since 2018), he has extensive academic experience, which includes a recent Visiting Professorship at the Faculdade de direito da Escola Superior Dom Helder Camara in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, from September 2022 to February 2023. He took part in several conferences as a speaker and organized international events such as the Young Researcher Workshop on ‘Scientific Evidence in International and European law’, the ‘Legitimacy and Efficiency in Global Economic Governance’ Workshop and the ‘Woodlands and Forests as Frontiers of Dialogue between Law and Life Sciences’.
MARTI GRAU SEGU
Member of the Academic Team of the House of the European History, an initiative of the European Parliament. Between 2009 and 2011, he was Visiting Professor at SPEA-Indiana University. Former Member of the European Parliament, he served in the Foreign Affairs and Internal Market Committees, as well as in several parliamentary delegations for relations with foreign countries (including Canada, Japan, and the South Caucasus countries). He also was Member of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. A graduate of SAIS-Bologna and Pompeu Fabra University, he has worked at the European Institute for the Mediterranean in Barcelona and taught European Politics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He started his career as an archaeologist and director of several archeological excavations.
MARIANO LONGO
Mariano Longo is Professor of Sociology at the University of Salento. His latest books are: Emotions throught Literature. Fictional Narratives, Society and the Emotional Self, Routledge, 2020; Fiction and Social Realty. Literature and Narrative as Sociological Resources, Routledge, 2015. He is the author of Charles Horton Cooley, pp. 113-133, in M.. Cerulo, A. Scribano (eds.),The Emotions in the Classics of Sociology. A Study in Social Theory, Routledge, 2021
LUIGI MELICA
Current Director of the Law Department of the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, he is Full Professor of EU and Comparative Constitutional Law, European Constitutional Justice, as well as Sports and Cultural Identity in Comparative Law. His main research interests deal with EU institutional development, the rule of law, presidential government systems, sports governance and transnational law of sports. Former Visiting Professor at the University of Miskolc, Hungary, and at the Univesity of Târgu-Mures, Romania, he authored seven books and more than sixty articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of several academic and judiciary associations, such as the Italian Association of Comparative Law, the Italian Association of Constitutional Law, the National Commission for the Control of the Statistics Data, the Judiciary Council of the Court of Appeal, and the Académie internationale de droit comparé. Furthermore, he is an editorial board member of a wide variety of scientific journals including DPCE Online, Eunomia, Diritti Regionali, The Judical Current Journal, Agora International Journal of Juridical Sciences, and ‘Idee e pratiche dell’evoluzione del diritto’.
CLAUDIA MORINI
Claudia Morini is Associate Professor of EU Law at University of Salento. She coordinates a Jean Monnet Module on "Protection and Promotion of Women's Rights in the European Legal Order: from Gender Equality to Active Participation in the Democratic Life of the European Union". She was Research Assistant at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. She was also Project Assistant in the EU financed "BEAMS Project" and Research Assistant at the International and European Union Law Department, Faculty of Law, University of Bari. In 2007 she obtained a PhD in International and EU law. In 2007 she also obtained a Masters Degree in Conflicts' Management and Resolution (University of Roma Tre). During her doctoral and postdoctoral research period, from 2003 to 2018, Dr. Morini authored independently many papers and articles in peer-reviewed law reviews and books and was invited as expert and speaker at conferences on International, EU and Human Rights Law in Italy and abroad. She has published a book on The Protection of the Rights of Religious Groups in the European context (Cacucci, 2018) and another one on Dialogue and Participation in the Governance of the European Union (Cacucci, 2020).
VALERIE SAINTOT
Valérie M. Saintot, LL.M, PhD, is a lawyer with experience in both private and public sector. She is a life-long learner and holds four postgraduates in law, psychology, and management research. She started her career at the ECJ in Luxembourg in 1994. Until April 2022, she was Head of Legislation Division, DG-Legal Services at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Valérie currently focuses on researching and teaching. She attributes multiple benefits to visualization in particular the ability to rapidly disseminate high quality knowledge and insights. The visualization of data, information and knowledge needs to follow transparent and accountable methodologies to meet ethical standards and avoid deceptive effects on audiences. She is author of pieces promoting science communication to make knowledge accessible and support democracy and citizens in the exercise of their rights.
BIOS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
SILVIA SOLIDORO
Silvia Solidoro holds a Research Fellowship at the Law Faculty of the University of Salento, where she has contributed to research activities in the field of EU law, while also serving as Teaching Assistant in public and private international law, starting from 2007. Silvia obtained a PhD in Law of Economics and Markets from the Institute of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (ISUFI), the research center of excellence of the University of Salento, in 2011 (graduated with full marks, first class honors degree). From 2009 until 2016, she consulted on corporate and antitrust matters with the Investment Climate Department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group, in Washington, DC, USA, conducting research and analytical work to promote legal, economy-wide and sector-specific reforms aimed at fostering private sector development with a geographic focus on Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia. Prior to joining the EUI, she also acted as Independent Expert for a consulting firm based in Rome, developing an assessment of the most relevant human rights compliance procedures pertaining to multilateral development banks. After that, she acted as Research Assistant (May 2016 - May 2021) and then Research Fellow (May 2021 - September 2022) at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy. Silvia earned her law degree (magna cum laude) in 2006; she was admitted to practice law in Italy in 2009.
ELISABETTA MARZO
Elisabetta Marzo is a PhD Candidate in “Law and Sustainability” at University of Salento in Lecce, with the International Law Chair. She recently spent a period of visiting research at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Law of Heidelberg. Elisabetta previously obtained the license to practice as a lawyer and completed training in the Criminal Court of Lecce. She holds a Master’s degree in Law from University of Salento and a “Diploma” with honor from ISUFI Higher Institute of Interdisciplinary Advanced Studies. Her main research interests are the interactions between International Investment Law, International Environmental law and Human Rights Law; the topic of sovereignty over natural resources and the phenomenon of natural resources grabbing.
NADIA PERRONE
Nadia Perrone is a PhD candidate in “Law and Sustainability” at the University of Salento and teaching assistant in International Law at the same University. She recently obtains the license to practice as a lawyer. Previously, she holds a degree in law with honours from the University of Salento and a degree of School of Advanced Studied ISUFI. Her main area of research are Business and Human Rights, Human Rights Law and Environmental Law. In particular, she is now studying the new perspective at EU level of the proposal of Directive on Human Rights Corporate Due Diligence. She is currently a member of the International Expert Group of Italy for the project “A Global Toolbox for Corporate Climate Change Litigation” of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, coordinated by Professor Attilio Pisanò.
ISABELLA SALSANO
Isabella Salsano, Research fellow in International Immigration and Asylum Law at the University of Salento. Isabella previously obtained her license to practice as a lawyer. She attended the public and private International Law course at the Academy of International Law in The Hague during the 2019 summer session and the 2023 winter session. Isabella holds a master's degree in law with honours and a university Diploma from ISUFI, an interdisciplinary higher education institute. The Catholic University of Louvain awarded her a mini-master in International Law and Human Rights. Public International Law, International Criminal Law, Human Rights’ protection, Humanitarian Law and Immigration Law are her main research interests.
FRANCESCO VIGGIANI
Francesco Viggiani, Lawyer and PhD candidate in International Law. Currently Francesco is holding the position of Research Fellow in International Law, working mainly on immigration for the Court of Lecce. In 2020 he passed the advanced vocational training course in Military Criminal Law, organized by the School of Military Law and School of Legal Studies at the University of Bologna. In 2021 he attended the public and private International Law course at the Academy of International Law in the Hague, and the specialized course on European Human Rights Protection at the Forensic Union for the Protection of Human Rights. His fields of research are International Law, International Criminal Law, Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, Criminal Law, International Sports Law and Immigration Law.
JACOPO LILLO
Graduated in law with a thesis focused on conditionality mechanisms in the framework of EU development cooperation policies, he is currently enrolled in the first year of the Phd programme on ‘Rights and Sustainability’ at the University of Salento with the European Union Law Chair. His research aims at framing social sustainability within the context of digital transition, investigating how artificial intelligence can be used as an innovative tool for building a new social dimension in Europe. His main interests lie at the intersection of law and politics and deal with EU external relations, Human Rights European Law as well as EU Internet Law.
OZAN YILDRIM
law graduate at the Ataturk University-Türkiye in 2019 and attorney, Ozan founded his own law office in Izmir,Türkiye in 2020. In 2022 he specialized in Tax Law at the Izmir Katip Celebi University and he is currently pursuing a second Master’s degree in Public Law, where he’s getting the chance of broadening his perspectives about Human Rights Law.
