An Italian politician and jurist, he was a Member of Parliament for the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s and 1980 and for the Partito Democratico della Sinistra, and was president of the latter on its foundation. He has been intensely engaged in political activity on the European scale and notably took part in the drafting of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. He has also been a Eurodeputy, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies. He has taught Law in a number of different universities around the world, including Oxford, Stanford, Sorbonne and La Sapienza. He is director of the review Rivistacritica del diritto privato and writes for the press, for example in L’Unità and La Reppublica. Notable among his recent books are Ideologie e tecniche della riforma del diritto civile (Editoriale Scientifica, 2007) and Perché laico (Laterza, 2009).