He then served as a Research Fellow and as a Associate in the Brescia University (1995-2004), where he lectured Italian and Comparative Criminal Law. From 2004 to 2016 he served as Full Professor at the Università degli Studi, Milan, lecturing Italian and European Criminal Law. From 2016 to 2018 he served as a Full Professor at the Bocconi University, Milan, teaching Criminal Law and Transnational Criminal Law. He has tutored several PhD theses.
He has been co-founder and editor-in-chief of the on line reviews Diritto Penale Contemporaneo and Diritto penale contemporaneo – Rivista trimestrale. From 2012 to 2018 he has been Secretary General of the Société Internationale de Droit Pénal. From 2007 to 2010 he was member of the Italian group of legal experts FRALEX, appointed by the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union for the elaboration of reports on the implementation of fundamental rights in the domestic legal orders.
He was a member of several international research projects, such as Kompetenznetzwerk Recht der zivilen Sicherheit in Europa (KoRSE) at the Freiburg Albert-Ludwigs-University, Germany; Legislación antiterrorista y Estado de Derecho directed by Prof. José Ramón Serrano-Piedecasas of the Castilla-La Mancha University (Spain); Cour de justice et justice pénale (nouveaux équilibres au sein de l’espace de liberté, sécurité et justice) directed by ARPE (Association des recherches pénales européennes) in cooperation with the Unité Mixte de Recherche en Droit comparé de Paris (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne e Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Trafficking in human beings: a critical perspective directed by Prof. Claes Lernstedt (Stockholm University), Rita Haverkam (Tübingen University) and Ester Herlin (Amsterdam Free University); European Criminal Policy Initiative Global directed by Prof. Helmut Satzger of the University of Munich and funded by the European Union; Personas Jurídicas y Responsabilidad Criminal directed by Prof. Joan Queralt (Barcelona University).
He is regularly invited as a lecturer by the Italian High School for the Judiciary and has given lectures and conferences in English, Spanish, German and French at several international institutions, such as the New York University and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (USA), the Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Strafrecht and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität (both in Freiburg, Germany), the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt and the Passau Universität (Germany), the Collège de France in Paris, the Queen Mary University in London, the Université du Luxembourg, the Universitat de Barcelona, the Universitat de Girona (Spain), the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), the Universidade da Coruña (Spain), the Universidad de Granada and the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (Spain), the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Universidad de Talca (Chile), the Universidad Aldolfo Ibáñez (Chile), the Universidad Diego Portales (Chile) and the Universidad Mayor (Chile).
He was a member of the Minister of Justice’s Commission on Reform of the Statute of Limitation (2012-2013) and of the Prime Minister’s Commission on Implementing the Fight against Organised Crime (2014).
In October 2015 he was awarded with the Fondazione Fratelli Confalonieri Prize for his academic performance.
His research topics cover most fields of national, European and transnational criminal law, with a special focus on international terrorism, organized crime, medical law and end-of-life decisions, the impact of human rights on criminal law, the dialogue between national and European courts.
He has published – as author, co-author or co-editor – 14 books, among which a recent study on the proportionality of penalties, and about 150 papers on legal journals.
He is married and has a 15-year-old son, Mattia.