Silvana Sciarra (born 24 July 1948) is an Italian jurist and academic. She served as a judge of the

Constitutional Court of Italy The Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic () is the highest court of Italy in matters of constitutional law. Sometimes, the name ''Consulta'' is used as a metonym for it, because its sessions are held in Palazzo della Consulta in Rome. ...

from November 2014 to November 2023 and served as its president from 20 September 2022 to 11 November 2023.

Career

Sciarra was born in

Trani Trani () is a seaport of Apulia, Southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani (BAT). History Overview The city of ''Turenum'' appears for the ...

. She taught European Labour and Social Law at the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral research-intensive university and an intergovernmental organisation with juridical personality, established by its founding member states to contribu ...

between 1994 and 2003. She was a professor of labour law at the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

and the University of Siena before being appointed to the Constitutional Court by the Italian Parliament on 6 November 2014. In the parliamentary election she obtained 630 out of a necessary 570 votes. She was sworn in on 11 November 2014. She is the first woman elected by the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...

as a judge of the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

. Previously, she was a Harkness Fellow at UCLA and Harvard Law School (1974-1976). She was a Fulbright Fellow and visiting professor at several universities, among which Warwick (Leverhulme Professor), Columbia Law School (BNL Professor), Cambridge (where she held the Arthur Goodhart Chair in Legal Science 2006-2007), Stockholm, Lund, University College London. She holds a Ph.D. Honoris Causa in law at the universities of Stockholm (2006) and Hasselt (2012).

References

1948 births Living people Academic staff of the European University Institute European Union law scholars Judges of the Constitutional Court of Italy Presidents of the Constitutional Court of Italy Labour law scholars People from Trani Academic staff of the University of Florence Academic staff of the University of Siena {{Italy-law-bio-stub