Prof. Marco Ferrazzani (Italy)
Director
current term: 2015-2018
Since 2010, Marco Ferrazzani has been the Legal Counsel and Head of the Legal Services Department at the European Space Agency (ESA).
In this capacity, he provides legal advice on questions of both public and private law to the Agency and to its Council of Member States in order to achieve the objectives laid out in the ESA Convention. This function ranges from advisory services on multilateral discussions, space programmes, ESA policy and negotiations of international agreements to normative services such as the drafting of proposals, agreements, rules and procedures.
As the ESA Legal Counsel, Dr. Ferrazzani leads the Legal Services Department and its team of lawyers across the various areas of law relevant to the work of the Agency including: legal counselling services in relation to space programmes, institutional and financial law, intellectual property matters and dispute resolution, international and EU law, export control, and any law applicable to space activities.
Dr. Ferrazzani has represented ESA at a number of international conferences and at the UNCOPUOS Legal Subcommittee. He is frequently invited as a guest lecturer at universities and policy institutions, and has regularly published articles in several law and policy books and journals.
Before joining ESA, Dr. Ferrazzani worked as an attorney in the Milan offices of Baker & McKenzie, representing clients in the fields of corporate law, international transactions, foreign investments and litigation.
A graduate cum laude in law from the University of Naples, Italy, Dr. Ferrazzani received his university’s prize for best doctoral thesis for his research on international and comparative law. Thereafter, he undertook postgraduate study in the United States at Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, as well as at the University of Salzburg, Austria focusing on international and comparative law.
Dr. Ferrazzani sits on the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), and is a Board member of the European Centre for Space Law (ECSL). He is also a member of the French Society of International Law (Société française pour le droit international) and the International Institute of Common Goods Research (Institut International pour la Recherche sur les Biens Communs).
