ERASMUS CHANGING LIVES OPENING MINDS fOR 25 YEARS

Maurizio
Oliviero
‘Each of us can change the world for the better’
Home institution:
University of Perugia, Italy
Host institution:
University of Alicante, Spain
Field of study:
Law
Duration:
9 months (1988)
An Erasmus study exchange to Alicante, Spain, would open a world of opportunity
for Maurizio Oliviero. The young law student from Perugia set off to find out
how his peers were studying to become lawyers and ‘to meet Europe in the flesh’.
‘It was very easy to live in a different country,’ he recalls. ‘When you are young and
idealistic, everything is easy. If all young people could have the opportunity to learn
about other cultures, the world would have fewer problems of intolerance.’
His first contact with another model of law ignited a deep interest in different
legal systems, and he decided to write his thesis on constitutional reform in
Spain. He also grew fascinated by Spain’s history of tolerating Jewish, Christian
and Islamic legal systems side by side. ‘History shows that we can live together;
we’ve had that experience. When I got back to Italy, I asked my professor to give
me more opportunity to study Islamic law in Arabian countries, and stared to
learn Arabic.’
Now a professor of comparative law at the University of Perugia, and an expert
on Islamic law, he is a member of the group drafting the Palestinian constitution,
and is assisting in the reform of the judicial system in Afghanistan and
training Afghan judges.
Those nine months in Alicante were ‘unique, vital and colourful’, he says. They
also confirmed his love of fictional hero Don Quixote, who attacked windmills
(which he mistakenly believed to be giants) – ‘it was a good position and it still
is today. Each of us can change the world for the better. We just need to find the
right tools and strategy.’
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