The first steps towards the creation of an association of comparative law scholars were moved in the 1950s when the first chairs in Private Comparative Law were established in Italian universities.

Only in the 1970s, however, the Italian Association for Comparative Law (AIDC) gave itself a formal structure by organizing, in 1971, in Genoa, the first of its biennial colloquiums. The by-laws that were laid out stated that the steering committee, elected by the general assembly of members, would sit for four years. The first President was Mauro Cappelletti (Florence and Stanford). Members of the steering committee were Giorgio Bernini (Bologna), Gabriele Crespi Reghizzi (Pavia), Vittorio Denti (Pavia), Maurizio Lupoi (Perugia), Rodolfo Sacco (Turin), Piero Verrucoli (Pisa). Gino Gorla (La Sapienza) was designated honorary president.

Subsequently, the Presidents have been Rodolfo Sacco (1977/81), Piero Verrucoli (1981/85), Alessandro Pizzorusso (Pisa) (1985/1994), Antonio Gambaro (Milan) (1994/2006), P.G. Monateri (Turin) (2006/2013), Vincenzo Zeno-Zencovich (Roma Tre) (2013/21).

The proceedings of its biennial colloquiums have been generally published, together with the Italian National Reports to the international congresses of the International Academy of Comparative Law (the full text or the table of contents are available on the PUBLICATIONS page).

Since its establishment AIDC has always encompassed comparative law in its broadest notion, including therefore not only private law, but also company law, procedural law, constitutional, public and administrative law, and looking beyond the Western legal tradition.

Since 2008 AIDC has been organizing, on a biennial basis, a Younger Scholars Conference open to PhD candidates, post-docs and assistant professors.

All the colloquiums and conferences are organized in a different university covering, by now, most of them from North to South of Italy, and on the basis of a call-for-papers procedure.