IT - Biography | Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Court of the European Union

Corte Suprema di Cassazione (Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy)

Mr Pasquale D’Ascola

First President of the Supreme Court of Cassation

President since: 4 September 2025
Member of the Supreme Court of Cassation since: 2007

Biography and career

Mr Pasquale D’Ascola was born in Reggio Calabria in 1958 and has been a member of the Italian Judiciary since 1981, first as a sole judge at the lower court in Verona and then as a member of the first-instance court of that city. From 2001 to 2007 Mr D’Ascola served at the Study & Research Office of the Supreme Court of Cassation and then became a Supreme Court justice.

In 2018 Mr D’Ascola was appointed President of Chamber, and in January 2020 he became President of the Second Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Cassation. In October 2023 he was appointed Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Cassation, in charge of coordinating the civil chambers and presiding over the Civil Grand Chambers.

During his career Mr D’Ascola has contributed to important decisions of the Grand Chambers, fostering the development of fundamental principles in civil and procedural law matters. He has also introduced organisational innovations for the management of Supreme Court cases, including the preliminary examination of appeals in the relevant chambers and the arrangement of the civil chambers by subject area. Mr D’Ascola was a member of the decentralised unit of the High School of the Judiciary at the Supreme Court of Cassation and of the Scientific Board for training at the High Council of the Judiciary, and has been a speaker at numerous conferences and seminars. He has collaborated and taught at university level and has authored several publications on civil law and civil procedure.

On 4 September 2025 Mr D’Ascola, a senior member of the Italian Judiciary having reached the seventh and highest professional grade, was appointed First President of the Supreme Court of Cassation by the Plenary Session of the Italian High Council of the Judiciary, presided over by the President of the Italian Republic.