The Hauser Global Law School Program and the Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law & Justice at New York University School of Law presented The Inaugural Annual Emile Noel Lecture on March 31, 2004. The lecture, entitled "The State of the (European) Union" was delivered by Professor Giuliano Amato, Member of the Senate of the Republic of Italy and Vice President of the European Constitutional Convention. Additionally, Ambassador Sergio Vento, Italian Ambassador to the United States was in attendance.

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Event Pictures

	Giuliano Amato		Giuliano Amato Sergio Vento Professor J.H.H. Weiller
	Giuliano Amato Invited Guests

Biographical Information

Giuliano Amato
Member of the Senate of the Republic of Italy
Vice President of the European Constitutional Convention

Giuliano Amato, born in 1938, studied law at the University of Pisa, where he graduated in 1960. Master's degree in Comparative Law at the School of Law of Columbia University (N.Y.) in 1962. Full Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Rome, School of Political Science, from 1975 to 1997, he had been Full Professor at the Universities of Modena, Perugia, Florence. Presently he is Global Law Professor at the NYU Law School and Visiting Professor at the EUI in Florence. He gives yearly seminars at the Law School of the N.Y Columbia University and is Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the LSE.

Member of Parliament from 1983 to 1994 and, more recently, since May 2001 as Member of the Senate, he was Under Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office from 1983 to 1987, Minister for the Treasury from 1987 to 1989 and from 1999 to 2000, Minister for Constitutional Reforms from 1998 to 1999, Deputy Prime Minister from 1987 to 1988 and Prime Minister from 1992 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2001. He also headed the Italian Antitrust Authority from 1994 to 1997.

Vice-President of the Convention that has drafted the not yet approved Constitution for the European Union, he has also been a member of a task force of the Council for Foreign Relations on the Transatlantic Relation headed by Henry Kissinger and Larry Summers and a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation at the ILO headed by Tarja Halonen and Benjamin Mkapa.

He has written books and articles on the economy and public institutions, personal liberties, federalism and comparative government. His most recent publications include "Antitrust and the Bounds of Power", Hart Publishing, Oxford 1997, "When the Economy is affected with a Public Interest", in F.Snyder (Ed.), "The Europeanisation of Law", Hart Publishing, Oxford 2000, "The Anticompetitive Impact of Regulations" (co-editor with L.Laudati), Edgar Elgar 2002 and "Tornare al futuro", Laterza 2002.

In 2002 he has been elected Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mr. Sergio Vento
Ambassador of the Republic of Italy to the United States

Ambassador Vento presented his credentials to the President of the United States and assumed the functions of Ambassador of Italy to the United States of America on May 8, 2003.

A career member of Italy's Senior Foreign Service, prior to this assignment, Mr. Vento served as Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations since December 1999. From 1995 to 1999 he served as Ambassador of Italy to France. Previously, from 1992 to 1995, Mr. Vento was Diplomatic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Italy, serving also as Italy's Representative to the Halifax (1995) and Lyon (1996) Summits of the G7. Appointed Chief of Mission to Yugoslavia with the rank of Ambassador (1989-1992), he was confirmed in the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in 1991.

Mr. Vento began his career in the diplomatic service in 1963 at the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, where he served for four years. He was posted to The Hague in 1967 and remained there until 1970, initially in the rank of Second Secretary and later that of First Secretary. From 1970 to 1972, he was Consul in Buenos Aires and from 1972 to 1975, Counselor in Ankara. In 1975, he returned to Rome to head the Bureau for the Near East and North Africa in the Ministry's Political Directorate. From 1979 to 1984, he was Deputy Permanent Representative to the European Organization for Cooperation and Development (OCDE) in Paris. He served as Head of the Bureau for Multilateral Economic Institutions in the Economic Directorate from 1985 until 1987 when he was appointed Diplomatic Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. In 1988 he entered the senior foreign service in the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary I.

Mr. Vento was born on May 30, 1938, and holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Rome. He and his wife, Maria Magdalena (Magda) Zelent, have two children.