Topic: Giuliano Amato

Giuliano Amato (born 13 May 1938 in Turin) is an Italian politician. He was Prime Minister of Italy twice, first from 1992 to 1993 and then from 2000 to 2001. He was more recently Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted the new European Constitution and headed the Amato Group. He is commonly nicknamed dottor Sottile, (which means both "Dr. Thin" and "Doctor Subtilis", a joke about both his physical thinness and his political insightfulness). From 2006 to 2008, he was the Minister of the Interior in Romano Prodi's government.

Born in Turin, Amato grew up in Tuscany. He received a first degree in law from the University of Pisa in 1960, while attending the prestigious Collegio Medico-Giuridico, now Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, and a masters degree in comparative law from Columbia University in 1963. After teaching at the Universities of Modena, Perugia and Florence, he worked as professor of Italian and Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Rome La Sapienza from 1975 to 1997.

Amato began his political career in 1958, when he joined the Italian Socialist Party. He was a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 1993. He was Undersecretary of State to the Prime Minister's office from 1983 to 1987, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Treasury from 1987 to 1988, then again Treasury Minister, from 1988 to 1989.