Mario Oriani-Ambrosini

Mario Oriani-Ambrosini
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2009
Leader	Mangosuthu Buthelezi
Personal details
Born	October 26, 1960 Rome, Italy
Nationality	American Italian South African
Political party	Inkatha Freedom Party
Spouse(s)	Carin
Children	Luke Wllliam
Alma mater	University of Rome and Georgetown University
Occupation	Lawyer, Businessman and Politiscian
Website	http://www.parliament.gov.za/live/content.php?Item_ID=184&MemberID=812

Mario Gaspare R. Oriani-Ambrosini is an Italian-American constitutional lawyer and politician, currently a Member of Parliament in South Africa with the Inkatha Freedom Party.^[1]

Biography

Mario Oriani-Ambrosini was born in Rome, Italy on October 26, 1960. He was the son of law professor Raffaele Oriani, who died in 1971 at the age of 39. Oriani-Ambrosini was then adopted and educated by his grand-uncle Gaspare Ambrosini, an Italian jurist and politician.

Even though his adoptive father was a leader of the Democrazia Cristiana, Oriani-Ambrosini spent his teenage political activism in the shadow of the leader of the Italian radical, environmentalist and libertarian movement Marco Pannella, a party with which Oriani-Ambrosini has maintained a lifelong association.^[2]

Oriani-Ambrosini attended the Sapienza University of Rome, Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center. While at Rome University he conducted research under the direction of the then-Secretary of the Italian Parliament Guglielmo Negri for the Consiglio Nationale Ricerche and the Italian House of Representatives Camera dei Deputati on the U.S. environmental system and the National Environmental Policy Act to support the drafting of an EEC directive and assess its compatibility with the Italian constitutional framework.^[3]

Having won a Fulbright scholarship, Oriani-Ambrosini relocated to the US to specialize in constitutional law and international financial and commercial law. In 1986 he became assistant to Rutger University law professor Albert P. Blaunstein, an international constitutional consultant. He subsequently became the Vice President of the Philadelphia Foundation and the public advocacy law firm Human Rights Advocates International, both presided over by Blaunstein.^[4] In such capacity Oriani-Ambrosini engaged in constitutional negotiation, lobbying, and public interest litigation in respect of Nicaragua (electoral law), the Russian Federation (preparation of the first draft constitution), Canada (position of Indian tribes in the national constitution and the tribes’ own constitutions), Uganda, Fiji (constitution drafting), Rumania (representing Alliancia Civica), Poland, Rom Nation, Italy (constitutional reports), the Moluccan Nation (Government in exile), Macedonia (representing VMRO), Cuba (shadow Government), Tibet (Government in Exile), proposed State of Humania, Seychelles (constitutional advisor to Sir James Mancham) and the then Zaire (Advisor to Paramount Chief Logotongo III). He also acted as a legal advisor to the Rehoboth Basters of Namibia with respect to land claims and regional autonomy, and the Afrikaner cultural institutions known as "Cultura 2000" in the first challenge on the constitutionality of a law, and in the challenge to single medium-of-instruction education. Oriani-Ambrosini also collaborated to the constant upkeep of the Blaunstein’s 60+ volume collections of “The Constitutions of the World”, and “Constitutions of Dependencies and Territories”^[5]

Besides his activities in politics and constitutional law he also worked as a commercial lawyer and businessman, working for the law firm of Hanna, Gaspar & Birkel and as the General Counsel of the Washington D.C Knop Organization.

In 1991 he began working for the South African political leader Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi and his Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), acting as a legal advisor during his negotiations in the context of the country's constitutional change from apartheid to democracy,^[6] and subsequently, when Buthelezi became Minister of Home Affairs in Nelson Mandela's Government of National Unity, as Buthelezi's Cabinet Advisor.^[7] He was actively involved in drafting new South African immigration policies,^[8][9] creating a new electronic population registry ("HANIS") and other Home Affairs issues.^[10]

Oriani-Ambrosini left the South African Government in May 2004 to reopen his Washington, DC office and establish Ambrosini & Associates, a legal and business consultancy, while continuing work as an advisor to Buthelezi. In 2009, he became a Member of the South African Parliament, where he serves on the Trade & Industry, Public Enterprises, Economic Development, and Justice & Constitutional Development Portfolio Committees and on the Finance and Rules, and Private Members Bills, and the Constitutional Review Joint Committee.^[11]

Oriani-Ambrosini has maintained his legal practice in the States, albeit by remote control as well as a standing political association with the US libertarian movement centered around Ron Paul.

References

1. ^ South Africa: Parliament Needs Change to Strengthen MPs' Oversight Muscle BusinessDay. 17 June 2009.
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ [2]
4. ^ [3]
5. ^ Jim Beacon: Madison, Jefferson ... Oriani-Ambrosini? in Virginias Business February 1992
6. ^ Ben Temkin, Buthelezi: A biography, pages 293 et seq.
7. ^ http://www.migratesa.com/anniversary_04.htm
8. ^ http://www.info.gov.za/whitepapers/1999/migrate.htm
9. ^ http://www.pmg.org.za/minutes/20030218-immigration-act-regulations-briefing-annual-report-finalisation
10. ^ http://www.queensu.ca/samp/sampresources/migrationdocuments/commentaries/2001/cat.htm
11. ^ http://parliament.gov.za/live/content.php?Item_ID=184&MemberID=812

Persondata
Name	Oriani-Ambrosini, Mario
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 26, 1960
Place of birth	Rome, Italy
Date of death
Place of death