fabiana di porto

fabiana.diporto@unitelmasapienza.it; fdiporto@gmail.com 

Associate professor of law and technology at the University of Rome Unitelma Sapienza (Italy)

Adjunct professor of Innovation law and regulation and of Fintech law at Luiss University (Rome, Italy)

I graduated in Law (summa cum laude) in 1997, hold a joint PhD in Law from the Université Robert Schuman of Strasburg and the University of Perugia (summa cum laude) (2003), an MSc in Regulation from the London School of Economics (2001/02) and a post-doc with scholarship from the University of Siena (2005/08). I was assistant professor with tenure of economics law at the University of Siena (2008/11) and visiting fellow at the Robert Schuman Center for Research Studies of the European University Institute (2011). In 2019/20 (sabbatical), I was awarded a scholarship from the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust, and joined the Hebrew University (Jerusalem) with a double affiliation, being Forchheimer Visiting Professor at the Law Faculty and associate at the Federmann Cyber Security Research Center of the same Law Faculty.

My most recent research focuses on the intersection between governance, law and technology from an interdisciplinary perspective. Especially, I am interested in how AI, algorithms and big data are disrupting classical concepts in the domain of governance, legislation and markets regulation. That applies to:

• Regulation and governance of emerging and disruptive technologies (including financial services - Fintech)

• Algorithmic (computational) analysis of law and regulation

• Information Disclosure and technology

• Legislative innovation through technology

• NFTs and Metaverses

I am Co-Editor in Chief of the peer-reviewed, A-rated Italian law journal “Concorrenza e mercato” (Competition and the market. Antitrust, Regulation, Consumer Welfare, IP; Giuffrè-Lefebvre pub.) since 2011, and Director for the Best Junior Paper Award at the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA). I sit in multiple scientific committees, like the Global Pandemic Network, Osservatorio AIR (Regulatory Impact Assessment), and the Law, Ethics and Technology journal.

I currently lead three multi-disciplinary research teams, having been awarded three grants from the Italian University Ministry: 

• “MetaJust: Metaverse for legal training” (2023-25); 

• “Algorithmic Disclosure Rules” (2019-24); and

• “Federated Learning for fraud and money laundry detection” (2024-25).

With my team, we initiated the Algorithmic Disclosure Project to explore the use of ML algorithms and NLP tools for regulatory purposes; in the domain of antitrust, and digitization processes. We also promoted two editions of the Law & Reg Tech Seminar to advance the debate at the intersection of law, regulation, governance and technology.  

From 2022, in collaboration with the CNR Lecce, I coordinate a project for the use of AI in courts, by comparing the Italian and Canadian systems.

Previously (2016), I won a 1-year grant from the Italian Energy Regulator (ARERA) to conduct experiments on the use of behavioral insights to empower energy consumers. Since 2917, I serve as member of the National Behavioral Unit (advisory committee to the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministries), for the application of behavioral insights to the analysis of public administrative action.

My most consolidated interests include: state vs individual liberties, regulation vs competition law; financial markets and energy law. Overall, I have over 90 articles, 3 books, 5 edited collections and a number of op-eds to my credit. I am a frequent speaker at international conferences and have been audited as national expert before European and Italian institutions (most recently, before the European Parliament on Dark Patterns, and the Italian Senate on the Metaverse). 

last update Sept 2022