He is commonly nicknamed dottor Sottile, which means "Doctor Subtilis", the sobriquet of the Scottish Medieval philosopher John Duns Scotus, a reference to his political subtlety.

He received a first degree in law from the University of Pisa in 1960 while attending the prestigious Collegio Medico-Giuridico of the Scuola Normale Superiore, which today is Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.

During those ten months, a series of corruption scandals rocked Italy and swept away almost an entire class of political leaders.

Fearing that the new system would have effectively blocked investigations of political corruption, Italians took to the streets in massive, spontaneous rallies.

While his justice minister Giovanni Conso took the blame, it has been disputed whether Amato was a victim of circumstances or whether he wanted to save the corruption-ridden system.

Amato was nearly nominated for the Presidency of the Republic and was a close contender to replace Michel Camdessus as head of the International Monetary Fund.

In 2006, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Olive Tree list, and he was named Minister of the Interior in Romano Prodi's centre-left government.

[citation needed] Since 2010, he also leads advanced seminar classes at the Master in International Public Affairs of the LUISS School of Government.

[citation needed] On 12 September 2013, President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Amato as judge on the Constitutional Court of Italy, where he has served since then.

The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.

It is also not credible that the Expedition of the Thousand could have caused the annexation of the Southern Italy to the Kingdom of Sardinia by itself, while the main political and cultural foundations had been thrown by the works of intellectuals like Francesco Mario Pagano and Vincenzo Cuoco produced in the 1790s.