CURRICULUM VITAE
SARA PENNICINO

Ricercatrice di Diritto pubblico comparato
Dipartimento di Scienze giuridiche, politiche e Studi internazionali
Università di Padova
Via VIII febbraio 1848, 2
35122 Padova, Italia
www.spgi.unipd.it
sara.pennicino@unipd.it

Researcher
Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development
Johns Hopkins SAIS Europe at Bologna
Via Belmeloro, 11
40126 Bologna, Italy
Tel. +39 051 4210371
Fax. +39 051 4219806
Website: www.ccsdd.org
Email spennicino@jhu.edu

Short Bio
Dr Sara Pennicino is a non tenured Research Fellow of Comparative Public Law at the University
of Padua, Italy. After completing a PhD in Comparative Public Law (2008) at the University of
Siena she became a first year postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Bologna’s School of
Law. In the meantime, she also became an affiliated scholar of the Center for Constitutional Studies
and Democratic Development (CCSDD), where to date she holds the position of Research Fellow.
She is the author of numerous articles published in Italian and international law reviews focusing on common law systems, with special attention to American constitutional law, Election Law, with
special attention to Europe and Italy and is a member of the Board of Reviewers of Comparative
Legilinguistics (Journal for International Legal Communication). Her first book, based on her PhD
thesis – regarding the use of the concept of reasonableness in the case law of the U.S. Supreme
Court and of the Italian Constitutional Court –, was published in March 2012. Her current academic
work addresses the role played by electoral watchdog bodies in transitional and post conflict
countries, with particular reference to countries that were assisted by the international community in organizing and conducting elections on the one hand, and solving electoral disputes on the other. In 2014, Sara Pennicino was awarded the National Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor of Comparative Law.