The origins of AGAMI
History and origins
From Rabat 2010 to today: over fifteen years of legal, judicial, institutional and international cooperation
Our origins
From Rabat 2010 to today
Founded in 2011 as the Associazione Giovani Avvocati Marocchini in Italia, AGAMI is today a multidisciplinary network of jurists and professionals engaged in research, training and legal, judicial and institutional cooperation between Italy, Morocco, Europe, Africa and the Mediterranean.
Its history begins with an idea put forward in Rabat in 2010 and develops, over more than fifteen years, through initiatives in comparative law, legal training for the Bar, judicial cooperation, institutional dialogue, universities, economic relations and international mobility.
-
2010 Rabat
The idea takes shape
Source: the Association's own archive
In 2010 Kaoutar Badrane, then a law graduate and trainee lawyer, took part from Italy in an international meeting in Rabat devoted to Moroccan skills resident abroad. There, as a jurist coming from Italy, she put forward the proposal to create an international network of jurists and lawyers of Moroccan origin active in their respective countries of residence, with the aim of connecting the expertise built up in different legal systems and fostering stable legal cooperation.
Mohamed Ameur, then Minister for the Moroccan Community Resident Abroad, was present at the conference. That proposal is the origin of the project that would lead to the birth of AGAMI.
-
2011 Italy
AGAMI is founded
With documentary evidence contemporary to the events
In 2011 the idea put forward in Rabat took shape in Italy with the establishment of AGAMI – Associazione Giovani Avvocati Marocchini in Italia, the first association of lawyers of Moroccan origin set up on Italian soil.
This primacy finds significant evidence contemporary to the events: on 24 October 2011 the Conseil de la communauté marocaine à l'étranger (CCME) published an article on the establishment in Rome of the first association of young Moroccan lawyers in Italy, expressly citing Badrane Kaoutar.
Even then a vision broader than a mere professional association emerged: to build a network of lawyers and jurists and to foster dialogue with judges, academics, researchers and other legal expertise, creating a lasting bridge between Italy and Morocco.
From this experience the present AGAMI – Dialogo Giuridico Interculturale APS gradually developed.
Note on sources
- Documented
- On 24 October 2011 the CCME relayed in its press review an article on the birth of the first association of young Moroccan lawyers in Italy, expressly citing «Badrane Kaoutar». The article does not name the association: the original name is attested by the founding deed, which the Association will make available. CCME, press review of 24 October 2011
- Still to be documented
- The 2010 international meeting in Rabat is not documented by any publicly available source: the account of the proposal put forward there is the Association's own. It is confirmed, however, that Mohamed Ameur was Minister for the Moroccan Community Resident Abroad from 2007 to 2012.
- Testimony
- The primacy stated for the founder is the wording published by the University of Trento in its «Testimonianze d'eccellenza», not an independent finding. University of Trento, «Testimonianze d'eccellenza»
- Chronology
- The full chronology, milestone by milestone and with the sources that can be consulted, is in the Historical Archive. Go to the Historical Archive
The founder
Kaoutar Badrane, Attorney — Founder and President
The first woman of Moroccan origin to graduate in Law in Italy, according to the testimony published by the University of Trento. In 2010, still a trainee lawyer, she took part from Italy in the international meeting in Rabat and proposed the creation of an international network of jurists and lawyers. In 2011 she gave effect to that proposal by founding AGAMI – Associazione Giovani Avvocati Marocchini in Italia.
Since then she has developed activities in comparative law and legal, judicial and institutional cooperation between Italy and Morocco, progressively extended to the Mediterranean, to Africa and to the European dimension.
Raised in Italy within a Moroccan family that emigrated in the 1980s, Kaoutar Badrane developed an early interest in law as an instrument of understanding, integration and protection of people. Her university path was completed at the University of Trento, devoted to European, transnational and comparative law and to the Moudawana, the Moroccan Family Code.
That research gave rise to the volume “Il codice di famiglia in Marocco” (libreriauniversitaria.it edizioni, 2012), one of the first Italian publications entirely devoted to the Moroccan Family Code, with an annotated translation of the text and an analysis of family law institutions before and after the 2004 reform. In the following years her scholarly work continued between Italy and Morocco and extended to immigration, citizenship and private international law; in 2021 the work “Cenni sulla legislazione in materia di immigrazione” was published.
A departure, at the beginning of this story
From a journey begun in the 1980s to a legal bridge between the two shores of the Mediterranean
There is a departure at the beginning of this story. In the 1980s a man left Morocco for Italy, carrying with him more hopes than certainties. Mohamed Badrane set out with no titles or guarantees, but with a conviction that would become his family's most enduring legacy: that study and knowledge are the highest form of freedom, and that one's roots are not abandoned, but handed down.
From that departure, a generation later, came a path spanning two languages, two cultures and two legal traditions. Those who grew up between Morocco and Italy chose law as a means of understanding, inclusion and protection, transforming a personal story into research, research into publications and publications into a collective project.
AGAMI is the point where that private journey becomes a shared heritage: a legal and cultural bridge between the two shores of the Mediterranean, built by those who have truly lived on both shores. It is this continuity — between those who left, those who grew up between two worlds and those yet to come — that makes AGAMI different from any other association.
Study and knowledge are the highest form of freedom; one's roots are not abandoned, but handed down.
Mohamed Badrane
Milestones
Over fifteen years, in six dates
- 2010 In Rabat, the creation of an international network of jurists and lawyers of Moroccan origin is proposed: this is the original nucleus of the AGAMI project.
- 2011 AGAMI is established in Italy as Associazione Giovani Avvocati Marocchini in Italia.
- 2017 The Italian-Moroccan study commission on family law is born out of the international conference in Bassano del Grappa.
- 2022 Italy–Morocco judicial cooperation enters Bar training, with continuing-education credits recognised.
- 2024 With the debate on the Mattei Plan at the Rome Bar Association, the path opens up to the African dimension.
- 2026 From Brussels to Palermo, the liaison model extends to the European institutions and to economic relations.
Continue the journey
Explore AGAMI further
The legacy of the project
“Knowing one's roots in order to build bridges between cultures, legal systems and generations.”
Today AGAMI continues and broadens that vision, promoting legal research as a tool for dialogue, innovation and cooperation among legal systems, institutions, universities and civil society.