Maria Chiara Malaguti is a Full Professor of International law at Università Cattolica Sacro Cuore (Milan/Rome, Italy). She was appointed the President of UNIDROIT since 1 September 2020, and is the first woman to cover such position. She is also a legal advisor to the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs on trade matters, and to the World Bank on legal reform of payment systems, financial markets, and governance. An international arbitrator for commercial disputes and foreign direct investments included in various rosters, she supports the General Attorney’s Office of Italy in the procedures opened against Italy as for international investment law. She has been legal assistant and chief of cabinet at the European Court of Justice, and until July 2003 she was a senior expert in the Payments Systems Division of the European Central Bank, advising on legal matters to the Section on Securities Settlement Systems.
She currently practices as an attorney in Rome and Milan. She has degrees in law and in economics, an LLM from Harvard Law School and a PhD from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. She has various publications, mainly focusing on financial markets and sovereign debt, harmonisation of law and international investment law.