Biographical note

Dr Jens M. Scherpe, M.A. (Cantab), MJur (Oxon) is a Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Cambridge and Director of Cambridge Family Law (https://www.family.law.cam.ac.uk/). He is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College and an Honorary Fellow of St. John's College/ University of Hong Kong. He also is an Academic Door Tenant at the Barristers' chambers Queen Elizabeth Building (QEB) in London. He is Honorary Professor at the University of Aalborg (Denmark), Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape (South Africa) and Cheng Yu Tung Visiting Professor in Law at the University of Hong Kong.In Cambridge Jens teaches comparative law and family law - and comparative family law. Before taking up his position in Cambridge, he was a Research Fellow and Head of the Department for the Law of the Nordic Countries at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. He has held visiting positions at a number of institutions, including the Australian National University/Canberra, the University of Sydney, the University of Auckland/New Zealand and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona/Spain. In addition he has lectured on a variety of subjects in numerous countries around the world, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Singapore, Mauritius and the People's Republic of China. Jens has published widely on a variety of topics. His major publications include several comparative family law studies. His PhD thesis on the out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes (2002) was awarded two prizes, the DIS-Frderpreis 2003/2004 by the German Institution of Arbitration (DIS) and the Otto-Hahn-Medal of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science for outstanding research achievements of young researchers (2002).Jens is the editor of the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family (IJLPF) and member of the international board of the "Zeitschrift fr das gesamte Familienrecht" (FamRZ). He is an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law/Acadmie internationale de droit compare and a member of the Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung fr Familienrecht e.V. Elena Bargelli is currently Associate Professor of Private law at the University of Pisa, with tenure. From 2008 to 2009 she was Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung at Max Planck Institut fr auslndisches und internationales Privatrecht (Hamburg, Germany). From 2001 to 2006 she was lecturer of Private Law at the Faculty of Economics (Pisa). In 1999 she completed her PhD in Private Law at the University of Pisa. She was visiting fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London UK (2011/2012), at the Yale Law School, New Haven, USA (2007), at Max Planck Institut fr auslndisches und internationales Privatrecht, Hamburg, Germany (2006, 2004).