Piero Calamandrei

Who was Piero Calamandrei?

Piero Calamandrei was an Italian author, jurist, soldier, university professor and politician. He was one of Italy's leading authorities on the law of civil procedure.

After studies in Pisa and Rome, Calamandrei assumed a professorship at the law school at the University of Messina in 1915. He fought as a volunteer in the 218th infantry regiment in World War I, rising to the rank of captain, and turning down a further promotion to resume teaching. In 1918, he resumed teaching at the University of Modena, then went on to teach at the law school in Siena, and finally, in Florence. His notable works include La cassazione civile and Studi sul processo civile. He also co-founded the journals Rivista di diritto processuale, Il foro toscano and Il Ponte, and participated in the 1942 revision of the Italian code of civil procedure.

Calamandrei was highly critical of Italian fascism; he signed, for instance, Benedetto Croce's 1925 Manifesto of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals and was linked to the Florentine journal Non mollare! published between January and October 1925. After the fall of the fascist regime in 1943, the Allies named him rector of the University of Florence. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1945 and, as a Social Democrat, to the National Assembly in 1948.