Alma Mater Professor, University of Bologna.
Alessandra Zanobetti graduated in Law in Bologna in 1978 with a thesis in Private International Law under the direction of Paolo Mengozzi and then devoted herself to the study of international private law issues, particularly in the field of the protection of minors (a subject on which she also took part in 1979 at the Centre de recherche of the Academy of International Law in The Hague) and in the civil and commercial field, a sector in which she has, among other things, carried out studies on international civil procedural law relating to consumer rights, for which she was awarded the Redenti Prize in 1980.
In the field of public international law, she has dealt with international jurisdictions (volume on La non comparizione davanti alla Corte internazionale di giustizia, 1996, and essay on Giurisdizioni internazionali e principi generali del diritto penale, 2008), reservations in treaties (participating in the collective work Six essays on Reservations published in Comunicazioni e Studi 2002), international labour law (volume on Diritto internazionale del lavoro. Norme universali, regionali e dell’Unione europea, now in its 4th edition in 2021) and child protection (essay on La dichiarazione universale dei diritti umani e la protezione e promozione dei diritti dei minori, 2020).
She continued her studies in the field of private international law of contracts and in particular international commercial contracts, publishing various contributions on the subject, including Legge applicabile al commercio elettronico: strumenti comunitari e internazionali (2000), À propos des usages du commerce international: quelques réflexions sur la pratique italienne (2003), Diritto uniforme e diritto internazionale privato: la disciplina degli strumenti finanziari detenuti presso un intermediario (2010), La sécurité juridique des transactions internationales dans un monde global (2010), Incoterms® e pluralità di metodi di regolamentazione dei contratti commerciali internazionali (2012), Autonomia delle parti e certezza del diritto nei Principi dell’Aja sulla legge applicabile ai contratti commerciali internazionali, written together with Angelo Davì (2017). She also explored these issues in practice, having served as Deputy Secretary-General of Unidroit (Institut international pour l'unification du droit privé) in Rome from 2006 to 2010.
In 2008 she published a further monographic study on Il rapporto internazionale di lavoro marittimo.
She has studied family law issues in articles in magazines and book chapters, also editing the parts relating to private international law and European law of the three editions of the Codice della famiglia directed by Michele Sesta (latest ed. 2015) and the Codice dell'unione civile e delle convivenze, also directed by Michele Sesta (2017).
She has written several articles and book chapters on family law: Divorzio estero e richiesta al giudice italiano dell'affidamento dei figli 2004), Il ricongiungimento familiare fra diritto comunitario, norme sull’immigrazione e rispetto del diritto alla vita familiare (2004), Divorzio, diritto straniero fondato sul principio della libertà dei coniugi e conformità all'ordine pubblico (2009), Il regime patrimoniale della famiglia nel diritto internazionale privato (2011), Il diritto di sposarsi dei cittadini stranieri in situazione irregolare: il caso O’Donoghue della Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo e la sentenza n. 245/2011 della Corte costituzionale (2011) and, with Angelo Davì, Omogenitorialità e continuità internazionale degli status (2021) e La dimensione sovranazionale del diritto internazionale privato della famiglia e delle successioni: problemi e prospettive (2025).
Her studies have also focused on the evolution of European integration (in 2005 she edited the collective work La Costituzione europea. Una riflessione interdisciplinare) and in particular on the private international law of the European Union. She has published numerous contributions on various aspects of this latter sector, including the article Divorzio all'europea: il regolamento (UE) 1259/2010 sulla legge applicabile alla separazione personale e allo scioglimento del matrimonio (2012) and the volume, written together with Angelo Davì, Il nuovo diritto internazionale privato europeo delle successioni (2014). Again with Angelo Davì, she has written several commentaries on European private international law, such as Le obbligazioni alimentari tra parti di un'unione civile e tra conviventi nel diritto internazionale privato (2017), Il nuovo regolamento UE 2019/1111 e la circolazione di separazioni e divorzi nello spazio giudiziario europeo (2019), Brexit e lo spazio giudiziario europeo in materia civile e commerciale all'alba dell'exit day (2020). She also contributed to The EU Succession Regulation. A Commentary, a volume published by Cambridge University Press in 2016, the result of a research funded by the European Commission.
Se has also studied aspects of private international law from the perspective of the relationship between the different sources, a topic on which she has published the essays Quelques réflexions sur les relations de l'Union européenne avec la Conférence de La Haye et UNIDROIT: ombres ou rayons de soleil? (2013), La legge italiana di diritto internazionale privato e le convenzioni internazionali (2015), EU Cooperation in Civil Matters and Multilevel Unification of Private International Law: Some Remarks (2016), Qualche riflessione sul diritto internazionale privato italiano a vent'anni dal Consiglio europeo di Tampere (2020), and in the perspective of transversal aspects of the subject, La residenza abituale nel diritto internazionale privato: spunti di riflessione (2019); La circolazione degli atti pubblici nello spazio di libertà, sicurezza e giustizia (2019).
In 2022, she wrote a report on the Italian experience in the field of Extraterritorial application of statutes and regulations for the 21st Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, held in Asunción.
She held a course at the Academy of International Law in The Hague, in the summer session of 2024, on ‘Les effets des sanctions et des contre-mesures économiques sur les relations juridiques privées’, which is due to be published in the Academy's Recueil des cours. On this topic, she published an editorial in the 2023 issue of the journal Freedom, Security and Justice (Sanzioni, ancora sanzioni: note minime sulle misure restrittive dell'Unione europea) and an article focusing in particular on international contracts (International Economic Sanctions: Some Thoughts on Their Impact on International Trade Contracts, 2025).
As a result of her teaching experience in the Master's Degree in Fashion Law at LUISS University, she has written several chapters of the book Fashion and Law. Current Trends and New Challenges, published in 2024 and edited by Angela Del Vecchio.
Since 2021 she has been a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Bologna Institute; in 2024 she edited, together with Giuseppe de Vergottini, the volume La vocazione di formare giuristi. Maestri e insegnamenti della Facoltà giuridica bolognese, published in the Colloquia series of the Academy of Sciences. Still in the context of historical reconstruction, she contributed a chapter on international studies to the volume edited by Marco Cavina and Alessia Legnani Annichini Docta suas secum duxit Bononia leges. Storia della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza di Bologna (XIX-XX secolo) (2024) and dedicated to her friend Alfonso-Luis Calvo Caravaca, on the occasion of the liber amicorum in his honour, the essay Il Colegio de España di Bologna e gli studi di diritto internazionale, written together with Angelo Davì (2024).
Alessandra Zanobetti was a full professor of International Law and Private International Law at the University of Bologna, Department of Legal Studies, until 31 October 2024. She currently teaches as an adjunct professor in the same Department and in the Department of Political and Social Sciences.
At the University of Bologna she was a member of the Board of Professors of the Doctorate in European Law; delegate for international relations of the School of Law (2012-2020); coordinator of the Single-cycle degree in Law (2015-2018).
From 2006 to 2010 she was Deputy Secretary-General of Unidroit.
Since 2007 she has been adjunct professor of Private International Law in the Department of Law at LUISS University in Rome.
She has been visiting professor at the Universities of Paris Nanterre, Dijon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Paris Panthéon Assas (Institut de Hautes Études internationales). She has held lectures at the Universities of Carlos III in Madrid, Montréal and Deusto (Bilbao). She has taught at numerous Italian and foreign universities and in post-graduate courses, especially in the field of contracts and international trade law, as well as in training activities, including in the context of development cooperation projects (training of Albanian diplomats, Tirana, 2005; training of officials of the Algerian Chambers of Commerce, 2021).
She is Chercheure associée, Chaire LexUM, at the Université de Montréal.
In 2008 she was a member of the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Evaluation Committee, Committee 23.
She is a member of the scientific committees of the journal Cuadernos de Derecho transnacional and the journal Lex electronica; she was co-Editor-in-Chief of the Uniform Law Review (2008-2010).
She provides legal advice in the areas of contracts and international litigation.
Bologna, April 2025
