Paola Mariani

Paola Mariani is Associate Professor of International and European Law at Bocconi University, Milan, where she teaches courses on EU Law, Private International Law, and International Law. She graduated in Law from the State University of Milan with a thesis on the protection of human rights in times of public emergency. She later obtained a PhD in International Law and Economics from Bocconi University, with a dissertation on international financial leasing and private international law. 

Her scholarly work focuses on European Union law, international trade law, and private international law, with a particular emphasis on the legal consequences of Brexit, the evolution of international economic governance, and the EU’s regulatory responses to global emergencies. She has contributed to the academic debate on the intersection between EU and international law, producing a substantial body of work that includes monographs, book chapters, and journal articles. Among her books are “Lasciare l’Unione Europea: riflessioni giuridiche sul recesso nei giorni di Brexit”, which was cited by the Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona in the landmark Wightman case before the Court of Justice of the EU (Case C-621/18), *La politica estera di difesa e di sicurezza comune dell’Unione europea* (with A. Lang, Giappichelli, 2014), and *Le relazioni internazionali dell’Unione europea* (Giuffrè, 2005). Her publications have addressed topics ranging from the EU’s external relations and the common foreign and security policy to the governance of the internal market during times of crisis, as well as the private international law implications of economic integration. 

Professor Mariani has participated in numerous international conferences and workshops across Europe and beyond, presenting papers on topics such as EU trade relations, Brexit negotiations, export controls during emergencies, and the legal foundations of the EU–NATO partnership. She was a visiting scholar at the World Trade Institute in Bern (2020–2021), where she carried out research on European models of economic cooperation outside the EU, and she is a Fellow of the Centre of European Law at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. 

Her professional and academic trajectory reflects a continuous engagement with the challenges posed by the evolving international legal order and the European Union’s role within it.