Giacinto della Cananea, the International Face of Administrative Law

THE NEW FULL PROFESSOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL STUDIES BOASTS AN ERC GRANT FOR A COMPARATIVE STUDY

“One of the reasons that led me to Bocconi, apart from its reputation and its well-known research vocation, is the desire to contribute to making the university a centre for European and comparative law.” Giacinto della Cananea is the latest arrival at the Department of Legal Studies. Full Professor since 2001, he comes from the University of Tor Vergata. He has taught in Lecce, Urbino and Naples. He has held various public positions and is currently a member of the Consiglio di Presidenza della Giustizia Tributaria.
Giacinto della Cananea was born in 1965. After graduating in Law in Rome, where he was a pupil of Sabino Cassese (a former judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy), he received his PhD from the European University Institute in Fiesole, near Florence. The Institute offered courses in English and French and promoted the study of supranational administration. “I did deliberately avoid an Italian university. It seemed to me that many Italian scholars at the time neglected the importance of law that was developing outside the boundaries of States. I sensed that there was a large, uncharted territory of public and administrative law waiting to be acknowledged. When I went to Oxford in 1994, this hunch was confirmed and I had the chance to discuss my ideas with jurists, such as Paul Craig, and political scientists.”

Della Cananea never stopped cultivating this interest. He has edited books on European administrative law such as the “Research Handbook on EU Administrative Law” (Elgar) and took part in a project that addressed the need for simplification of EU administrative law. The project has been awarded the Altiero Spinelli Prize for Outreach. “It is an attempt to improve the ‘living law.’ The award shows the importance of our research that investigates both theoretical aspects and practical aspects.”

In 2008 he taught at Duke Law School, in 2013 at Yale Law School. During his stay in the US, he developed an interest in comparative law, which now covers about half of his academic work. “Two years ago, I was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for The Common Core of European Administrative Law. It was the first time ever an ERC was granted to a jurist of an Italian university. The project has already involved about seventy scholars from fifteen different countries.” The project focuses on the European dimension of administrative law and aims to investigate similarities and differences, and to shape common legal scenarios.

Della Cananea held several public positions outside of academia. From 2013 to 2018 he was a member of the Italian Court of Auditors (Consiglio di Presidenza della Corte dei Conti). “It was a chance to study the actual functioning of administrative institutions. It has greatly enriched me.”

Passionate about French cinema and literature, with a predilection for Nouvelle Vague filmmakers and 19th and 20th Century novelists, della Cananea skies and plays doubles tennis.

In Milan, he teaches Administrative Law in Italian and Global Administrative Law in English. The latter course is dedicated to supranational bodies and legal regimes that have developed in the last twenty years. “In the past, I worked with the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. From that position, I could see the limits of our university system, but I could also see the amount of talent and passion that scholars infuse in what they do. This is highly beneficial to research and teaching.”
 

by Claudio Todesco