PRIN 2022 | Enhancing the Autonomy of Vulnerable Adults in Legal Matters

Team

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Personale

The project team consists in four Research Units:

Università di Pisa Research Unit

Website

The website of this Reseach Unit may be found here.

Tasks

The University of Pisa Research Unit coordinates the project.
As to research tasks, the University of Pisa deals with the traditional approach to the capacity of vulnerable adults and, more specifically, with the judicial and ex lege powers of representation of family members.

  • It points out the downsides of the existing judicial proceedings (amministrazione di sostegno, inabilitazione, interdizione), by identifying the existing barriers to an efficient and effective enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all vulnerable adults, with the aim of promoting respect for their dignity.
  • It explores the ex lege powers of representation as means of managing patrimonial and/or medical matters of persons who are not in a position to protect their interests by their own.

Stages of work

  1. Months 1-10: field-research conducted by interviewing judges (“giudici tutelari”) and family lawyers in Pisa and Lucca.
  2. Months 11-20: desk-research on critical issues arising from the current judicial proceedings and a comparative analysis of jurisdictions allowing the ex lege power of representation of family members.
  3. Months 21-24: draft final report of the results of the activities carried out in Stage 1 and Stage 2. The electronic version of the final report will be presented in a final conference to the stakeholders (partners, judges, bar associations, associations supporting vulnerable adults and representing administrators of support) and disseminated online through the most common social media platforms.

Members

Elena Bargelli

Principal Investigator

Elena Bargelli is currently Full Professor of Private Law at the University of Pisa (Italy). Previously, she was a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung at the Max Planck Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht in Hamburg (2008–2009) and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London (2011/2012) and at the Yale Law School (New Haven, USA, 2007). She is currently a member of the ELI Council and Membership Committee. She is also a member of the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law (ECTIL). Her areas of interest are contract and consumer law, tort law, family law and housing law, from a national and comparative perspective.
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Chiara Favilli

Chiara Favilli is Associate Professor of Private Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Pisa. She has published extensively in the fields of tort and family law, and in recent years has start to focus her reserach on the civil law protection of vulnerable adults, examining the limits of the national framework and the development perspectives. She is a national contributor to the ELI project on Advance Choices for Future Disability. Together with Professor Elena Bargelli, she drafted the questionnaire on the Italian system.
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Caterina Murgo

Caterina Murgo is an Associate Professor at the Law Department of the University of Pisa; she’s a vice president of the DILPA (Business, Job and Public Administration Law). The main fields of her research are family law, rights of the children and remedies for their violation in the family and educational environment, fundamental human rights, in particular, social rights, and animal rights in the private law context.
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Federico Azzarri

Federico Azzarri is an Associate Professor of Private Law at the University of Pisa, where he also teaches Private Economic and Insurance Law. His scientific interests mainly concern Contract Law, Law of Obligations and Family and Succession Law. He developed his research activity during several study stays at the Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht in Hamburg, where he was scholarship holder in 2024. In 2015 he received the “Francesco Santoro-Passarelli” prize for Civil Law from the “Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei” for his monograph “Res perit domino e diritto europeo. La frantumazione del dogma” (Giappichelli, 2014).

Rachele Zamperini

Rachele Zamperini is a Research Fellow at the Department of Private Law, University of Pisa. In 2024 she obtained her PhD in comparative law with a thesis on the principle of the best interests of the child applied in the context of filiation. She has produced several publications on family and child law topics. She holds an Advanced LLM in International Children’s Rights from Leiden University. She is currently working on the protection of vulnerable adults from a comparative law perspective.
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Università degli Studi di Torino Research Unit

The aim of the University of Torino Research Unit is that of verifying whether and to what extent the protection of vulnerable adults shall be transferred to notaries or public authorities for a more effective and quick protection of vulnerable adults, in the light of what will be provided by the Italian Government.

Stages of work

  1. Months 1-10: field-research/empirical study realized through semi-structured interviews conducted by this unit among judges (giudici tutelari) and family lawyers active in the 7 tribunals of the Piedmont Region (Alessandria, Asti, Biella, Cuneo, Torino, Vercelli, Ossola-Verbania). Additional semi-structured interviews will be conducted with relevant public authorities (for instance, the Ufficio di pubblica tutela della città metropolitana di Torino, a public body which offer pro bono legal advice to administrators of support, especially when family members) and national and local associations protecting vulnerable adults (such as the Federazione italiana Alzheimer), as well as national and local associations of support administrators.
    The empirical study will aim at identifying, for instance:
    • how often the person requesting the appointment of a support administrator is the vulnerable adult;
    • how often the support administrator is appointed in a situation in which the vulnerable adult has express his/her dissent against the appointment;
    • how often the support administrator replaces the vulnerable person in decisions concerning personal affairs (for example, in expressing the informed consent).
    The end of stage 1 will be marked by a one-day workshop in which the findings of the empirical study will be presented and discussed with members of the other units, judges, bar associations, and associations protecting vulnerable adults and representing administrators of support.
  2. Months 11-20: desk-research on the possible factual and procedural benefits/barriers that a dejurisdictionalisation of the protection of vulnerable adults may cause in the framework of what will be provided by the Italian Government in the delegated law (decreto delegato). If the Government will remain silent in respect of a dejurisdictionalisation of such kind of proceedings, the research done by this unit will serve as a risk assessment/added value study for future legislative initiatives. The findings of the research will be presented and discussed with the stakeholders in a one-day workshop.
  3. Months 21-24: final report of the results of the activities carried out in Stage 1 and Stage 2. The electronic version of the final report will be presented in a final conference to the stakeholders (partners, judges, bar associations, associations supporting vulnerable adults and representing administrators of support) and disseminated online through the most common social media platforms.

Members

Elena D’Alessandro

Associated Investigator

Elena D’Alessandro is a Full Professor of Civil Justice at the University of Turin, where she is responsible for the Departmental excellence project 2023-2027, focused on empirical and transdisciplinary research. She has published extensively on matters within the field of national and European civil procedure, including voluntary jurisdiction and the judicial protection of vulnerable individuals.
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Relevant publications

Joëlle Long

Joëlle Long is an Associate Professor of Private Law at the Department of Law, University of Turin, where she teaches, among other courses, “Vulnerable Groups and the Law.” Her research has extensively focused on the rules of private law and civil procedure concerning the protection of vulnerable adults. Additionally, she led a comparative study on the international protection of vulnerable adults for the European Parliamentary Research Service. The findings of this study are published in a chapter co-authored with P. Franzina, *The Protection of Vulnerable Adults in EU Member States: The Added Value of EU Action in Light of The Hague Adults Convention*, in Christian Salm, *Protection of Vulnerable Adults – European Added Value Assessment*, Brussels (European Parliamentary Research Service), 2016, pp. 106-177.
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Eleonora Ebau

Eleonora Ebau is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Turin, as well as, case manager of arbitral proceedings at the Milan Chamber of Arbitration. She has published on matters within the field of transnational litigation and international arbitration.
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Università degli Studi di Padova Research Unit

The University of Padova Research Unit deals with the introduction of the anticipated power of attorney in the Italian legal system as a way of overcoming the limits of the current general power of attorney based on the existing rules of the civil code.
In order to pursue with goal, this unit:

  • identifies the current barriers to the full development of personality rights of frail and vulnerable adults who are not under guardianship;
  • conducts an in-depth comparative analysis of the anticipated power of attorney in some foreign legal systems to investigate whether any legal transplant or adaptation can be envisaged.

Members

Matilde Girolami

Substitute Principal Investigator

Matilde Girolami is a Full Professor at the University of Padua and Pro-Rector with responsibility for the Right to Study. Her research interests are lately devoted to the theme of vulnerability, on which she has been a speaker on numerous occasions. The professor also currently holds a course dedicated to the protection of vulnerable adults as Internal Courses – Class of Social Sciences of the Scuola Galileiana di Studi Superiori of the University of Padua. She is responsible for research projects of national and european relevance on the subject, including: scientific responsible for the research programme entitled “Non-self-sufficient elderly persons: negotiating instruments of protection”, funded by the Department of Private Law and Critique of Law of the University of Padua (DOR 2021); scientific responsible for the research programme entitled “The protection mandate in Europe”, funded by the Department of Private Law and Critique of Law of the University of Padua (DOR 2022); scientific responsible for the project Jean Monnet Actions in the field of Higher Education: Modules (Jean Monnet Modules), funded by European Commission for 2025-2027, “L.I.V.E.S. – Law, Inclusion, Vulnerability & Equality Studies”.
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Matteo Ceolin

Matteo Ceolin is a Full Professor of Private Law, incardinated at the Department of Private Law and Critique of Law of the University of Padua, Lawyer already registered in the special section of university professors – Padua Bar Association Council. Notary public based in the Notary District of Padua.
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Mariassunta Piccinni

Mariassunta Piccinni is an Associate Pofessor in Private Law at the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies, University of Padua. Her main interests are in the areas of the person, the family and minors, on which she has repeatedly been a rapporteur and member of national research projects.
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Maddalena Cinque

Maddalena Cinque is an Associate Professor of Private Law (IUS/01) since February 2015, at the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies, Università degli Studi di Padova. She is a former assistant professor (Ricercatore a tempo indeterminato) since March 2011.
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Emanuela Morotti

Emanuela Morotti is Researcher (type A), at the Department of Private Law and Critique of Law of the University of Padua. She obtained, by unanimous vote, the National Scientific Qualification for the position of Second-Band Professor for the concurring sector Private Law. Her research interests have lately been devoted to the theme of vulnerability, on which she has been a speaker several times, also abroad. She is a member of the Jean Monnet Actions in the field of Higher Education: Modules (Jean Monnet Modules) project, funded by the European Commission for the three-year period 2025-2027, ‘L.I.V.E.S. – Law, Inclusion, Vulnerability & Equality Studies’.
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Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Research Unit

The research unit at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore focuses on two issues:

  • the international obligations of Italy that enshrine the fundamental right of vulnerable adults to access support for the exercise of their legal capacity (hereinafter, the human rights issue);
  • the protection of adults in cross-border situations (hereinafter, the private international law issue).

Stages of work

  1. Months 1-10: focus on the human rights issue through desk research. The unit plans to organize a seminar involving experts from various fields (constitutional law, EU law, private law, law of civil procedure, public and private international law) focused on Article 12 of the UNCRPD and other international instruments relating to, or otherwise having an impact on, the measures whereby Italian law and Italian authorities provide vulnerable adults with the access they may require in the exercise of legal capacity. Stage 1 will result in a short collection of essays, issued from the seminar, and a practical guide for practitioners, aimed to draw attention on the human rights concerns surrounding the protection of vulnerable adults in a range of scenarios, and explaining how those concerns should be addressed in accordance with the relevant international instruments. Before finalizing the practical guide, the unit will host a seminar to present the draft guide to practitioners, with a view to collecting remarks and suggestions. The final version of the guide will reflect the feedback received.
  2. Months 11-24: focus on the private international law issue through desk research devoted to the Hague Convention of 2000 on the International Protection of Adults. The unit plans to produce a detailed article-by-article commentary of the Convention. The commentary will be written in English, but an Italian version will also be prepared, which will also focus on the implementation of the Convention in Italy.

Members

Pietro Franzina

Associated Investigator

Pietro Franzina is a Full Professor of International Law at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, where he serves as the Director of the Institute of International Studies. He has published extensively on matters within the field of private international law. Specifically, he wrote a book and several articles on the protection of adults in cross-border situations. He was a member of the Working Group set up within the Hague Conference on Private International Law to draft a practical handbook of the Hague Convention of 13 January 2000 on the international protection of adults and served as a delegate of Italy to the first meeting (2022) of the Special Commission charged with discussing the practical operation of that Convention. He was a member of the groups of experts established by the European Law Institute and the European Association of Private International Law, respectively, to elaborate normative proposals directed at the European Union regarding the protection of adults in international situations.
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Francesca Albi

Francesca Albi is a Research Collaborator at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. She graduated summa cum laude at the University of Verona discussing a dissertation on the support in the exercise of legal capacity of vulnerable adults in private international law. She was a legal intern at the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, where she worked, specifically, on the Hague Convention of 13 January 2000 on the international protection of adults. She also worked as a research assistant in international and comparative disability law at the National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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