Giovanni Maria Flick

Flick was born in Cirié, Piedmont, to a Catholic, half-ethnic German family, as the fifth of seven children.

He began his education at the Jesuit liceo, and gained a diploma in law at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. He then practiced (1964–1975) at the Rome tribunal, as a judge, then as a prosecutor, was a professor at the University of Perugia, the University of Messina, and, from 1980, the LUISS University of Rome, and also started a career as a lawyer. He contributed editorials to Il Sole 24 Ore and La Stampa.

He was Minister of Justice^[1] in Romano Prodi's cabinet in 1996–1998, and presented the Italian Parliament with projects of organic laws meant to implement major judicial reforms which were almost entirely adopted by 1999 (including laws that made sentencing easier for misdemeanors). His experience as Minister got him named Italian representative to the European Commission of Human Rights, during the second Massimo D'Alema cabinet. In 2000, he was chosen by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to the office of judge in the Constitutional Court of Italy.