Daniela Caruso

Professor of Law
LL.B., summa cum laude, University of Bari (Italy)
LL.M., Harvard Law School
Doctorate in Comparative Law, University of Florence (Italy)

Interests: European Union Law; Contracts; Disability and Education Law

Professor Daniela Caruso was awarded the Melton Prize for Teaching Excellence in 2006. Author of a book in Italian on comparative contract law, she has taught contracts and European Union law at BU Law for many years. "The legal integration of the European Union illustrates most vividly the impact of free trade on the social and political structures of sovereign nations," she explains. In her European law publications, she has focused on private law as a particularly effective, though non-conventional, tool for analyzing the political transformation of supranational institutions. She has also written on equality and federalism, and on the implications of European integration for state-based social legislation. Professor Caruso is frequently invited to lecture on such topics. In 2008 she was Visiting Professor and John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization at Harvard Law School. In matters of contract law, her articles have dealt with the distributive impact of pseudo-contractual mechanisms in the delivery of special education services, and with the links between contract doctrines and welfare reform. Currently, Professor Caruso is working on a project on the "Law of Autism," which includes co-teaching an interdisciplinary seminar on Autism and Society and a course on Education Law in 2009.