About

I am an Associate Professor in International Law at the Department of Political Science, Law, and International Studies of the University of Padua, Italy.  I was formerly a Jean Monnet Research Fellow at the Robert Schumann Center for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute (2024-2025), an Adjunct Professor at the School of Political Sciences of the University of Florence (2021-2025), a Research Fellow at the University of Padua (2023-2024), a Professor of International Economic Law at Lancaster University, United Kingdom (2015-2021), a Michigan Grotius Senior Research Scholar at Michigan University Law School (2019), an Emile Noël Fellow at the Jean Monnet Centre for International and Regional Economic Law at New York University (2013-2014), and a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Maastricht University (2011-2013). I also lectured at Hasselt University (Belgium) (2009-2011), the University of Rome III (Italy)(2009-2010), the China-EU School of Law (P.R. China)(2009-2011), and Maastricht University (The Netherlands)(2009-2011). I was also a Visiting Professor of law at the European University Institute (2016).

I hold degrees in international law and political science from the University of Siena, a Master of Research and a Ph.D. from the European University Institute, and an MJur from the University of Oxford. I completed further non-degree studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (US), the University of Fribourg (CH), Queen Mary University of London, and the London School of Economics.

In 2015, I was awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant to fund research on the protection of cultural heritage in international economic law, including world trade law, international investment law, and European Union Law. The main outcome of this research was Cultural Heritage in International Economic Law (Leiden: Brill 2023). In 2018-2019, I was awarded a Michigan Grotius Research Fellowship to conduct research on the early-modern developments of international law. The main outcome of this research was War and Peace – Alberico Gentili and the Early Modern Law of Nations (Leiden: Brill 2020).

I published more than eighty articles in various areas of public international law in top journals, including the Harvard International Law Journal, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, the Stanford Journal of International Law, the Michigan Journal of International Law, the Columbia Human Rights Review, the European Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, and others. I co-edited (with Hildegard Schneider) Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Market: Legal and Ethical Issues (Springer: Heidelberg 2014); (with Bruno De Witte) Culture and International Economic Law (Routledge: 2015); (with Antonietta Di Blase) The Inherent Rights of Indigenous Peoples in International Law (Rome III University Press 2020); (with David Collins) The Routledge Handbook of International Economic Law (Routledge 2026); and (with Saudin J. Mwakaje and Tarcisio Gazzini) The African Renaissance in the Age of Globalization: What Role for International Investment Law? (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2026).

I am the author of Public Health in International Investment Law and Arbitration (Routledge 2012), Cultural Heritage in International Investment Law and Arbitration (Cambridge University Press 2014), Analogies in International Investment Law and Arbitration (Cambridge University Press 2016), Proportionality, Reasonableness and Standards of Review in International Investment Law and Arbitration (Edward Elgar 2018), War and Peace: Alberico Gentili and the Early Modern Law of Nations (Brill 2020), and Cultural Heritage in International Economic Law (Brill 2023).

I have presented my research at international conferences worldwide in Asia, Europe, and North and Latin America. In particular, I have been invited to present at the following universities: Athens; Bedfordshire; Bern; Birkbeck College, University of London; Bologna; Buckingham; Cambridge; Catania; Charles University, Prague; City University, University of London; Coimbra, Edinburgh; European University Institute, Florence; European University Rome; Florence; Free University Berlin; Geneva; Georgetown; Glasgow; Groningen; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Keele; King’s College, University of London; La Rochelle; Leiden; Liverpool; London School of Economics; Michigan; Minnesota; National University Singapore; Newcastle; New York University; Padua; Perugia; Quebec (Montréal); Queen Mary University of London; Rome La Sapienza, Rome III; School of Advanced Study, University of London; Sevilla; Siena; Southampton; Strathclyde; Sussex; Turin; Universidad Autonoma Madrid; University College London; University of the West of England; Verona; Warwick.