Giovanni Buttarelli is a member of the judicature. He also worked for a number of years at the Legislation Department of the Italian Ministry of Justice where he contributed to drafting and following up many regulatory provisions - in particular as regards criminal law and criminal procedure.

He is the drafter of the Italian privacy bill, which was passed by Parliament in 1996. Mr Buttarelli has been following for years the issues related to new technologies - in particular to privacy, computer crime and copyright.

In the 1984 to 1990 period he cooperated with the Faculty of Criminal Procedure at Rome University.

Giovanni Buttarelli has represented Italy in many commissions and working groups both at European Union level and at the Council of Europe. During the EU Italian Presidency period (1996), he chaired the Council Working Group which drew up European Directive no. 97/66/EC on the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector.

He is the Vice-President of the Joint Supervisory Authority set up in pursuance of the Schengen Agreement.

Mr. Buttarelli took part as a speaker in many meetings and workshops both in Italy and abroad. He is a regular contributor to specialised journals and has authored a number of papers and a book published on European and Italian legislation on data protection.