Alberto ALEMANNO
- Visiting professor, Département d'études politiques et de gouvernance européennes (Campus Bruges)
Course offered: European Democracy : Citizen Participation in and beyond Elections (8h)
Current position: Alberto Alemanno is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law and Policy at HEC Paris, as well as visiting professor at the College of Europe and the University of Tokyo, and currently Democracy Fellow at Harvard University. Alemanno has made repeated forays out of the ivory tower and into the halls of government and realm of civil society. First, he has served as law clerk at the Court of Justice of the European Union. Second, due to his commitment to bridge the gap between academic research and policy action, he has pioneered innovative forms of academic and civic engagement and activism in the EU transnational space via his civic start up The Good Lobby, with offices in Paris, Madrid and Milan, as well as the EU Public Interest Clinic he established with New York University School of Law. He has been involved in dozens of campaigns, ranging from the first European Citizen Initiative putting an end to international roaming to the drafting of the EU whistleblower directive, and advocated for EU transnational lists and currently EU mobile citizens’ political rights (Voter Without Borders’ ECI).
He is known as an advocate for the democratisation of the European Union through the promotion of a set of power-shifting reforms aimed at equalizing access to power.
His academic engagement has led Politico Europe to nominate him one of the top 40 influencers in Brussels, the World Economic Forum to nominate him Young Global Leader in 2015. Friends of Europe included him among the 40under40 European Young Leaders and Ashoka named him life-long fellow for his social entrepreneurship, and, more recently, the Schwab Foundation awarded him as Social Innovator of the Year in 2022 in Davos.
He’s the author of more than fifty scientific articles and several academic books such as the acclaimed 'Nudge and the Law – A European Perspective' and ‘Citizen Participation in Democratic Europe’. Alberto is a regular contributor to Le Monde, The Guardian, Politico Europe, Bloomberg, as well as Euronews, BBC World and France24, and his scholarly and public interest work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, the Financial Times as well Science and Nature.
His book, ‘Lobbying for Change: Find Your Voice to Create a Better Society’ provides a timely analysis and guide to levelling the democratic playing field by empowering ordinary citizens to speak up and inform policy decisions at local, national and international level.
He sits on the board of several civil society organisations, such as European Alternatives, Access Info Europe and Diritto di Sapere, as well as the citizens’ campaigning movements We Move, which operates transnationally.
Originally from Italy, Alberto is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the College of Europe (where he served as a teaching assistant in 2001-2002) and holds a PhD in International Law & Economics from Bocconi University.
Other professional activities:
- Founder and Director, The Good Lobby
- Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum
- Global Professor of Law, NYU School of Law (2014-2018)
- Visiting Professor of Public Policy, University of Tokyo (2015-present)
- Attorney at law, New York State
Research interests: European Law, Democracy and Public Participation, Risk Regulation & Regulatory Reform, Behavioural Law, Policy & Economics, Litigation and legal remedies.
Recent publications:
- Citizen Participation in Democratic Europe: What next for the EU?, ECPR Press /Rowman & Littlefield, 2021 (with James Organ).
- Unboxing the Conference on the Future of Europe and its Democratic Raison-d’Être, European Law Journal, 2022.
- Leveling the EU Participatory Playing Field: A Legal and Policy Analysis of the Commission’s Public Consultations in Light of the Principle of Political Equality, European Law Journal, 2020.
- Lobbying for Change: Find Your Voice to Create a Better Society, Icon Books Ltd, 2017.
- Democracy, 2018 (Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3304510)
- There are 17 million mobile EU citizens who deserve a political voice, The Guardian, 1 May 2019 (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/01/17-million-mobile-eu-citizens-european-elections)
- "Unpacking the Principle of Openness in EU Law, Transparency, Participation and Democracy", European Law Review, February 2014, vol. 39, n° 1, pp. 72-90.