FLORENCE, ITALY – Famous jurist Paolo Grossi (83) was elected president of Italy’s Constitutional Court for a two-year mandate on Wednesday February 24, 2016. Grossi’s predecessor Alessandro Criscuolo resigned on February 11 for family reasons, although he still sits on the court.
Born in Florence on January 29, 1933, Grossi has had a long career as a lecturer in history of law and canon law in various universities. He was named a Constitutional Court justice by the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, on February 23, 2009.
In 1971 Grossi founded the Florentine’s center for law modern studies (Centro studi per la storia del pensiero giuridico moderno). He directed the center until 2002 and recentlty more than 10,000 books were donated by his family to the library collection sited in the Florentine’s center named Fondo Grossi.
In his first remarks to reporters as the new high court chief, Grossi hailed a ruling earlier in the day that struck down a Lombardy regional law restricting the building of new mosques in the northern Italian region. He also said that a Constitutional Court ruling in a stepchild adoption case earlier in the day had nothing to do with a civil unions bill now before the Senate.