Francesca ROTOLO

MSCA Researcher (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, University of Zurich, Columbia Law School, New York) specializing in digital law, copyright law, and personal data protection.

She graduated with honors and academic distinction from the University of Bari “A. Moro” (advisor: Prof. G. Resta) with a thesis on security interests in intangible assets, developed during a research period at the University of Bordeaux, where she had the opportunity to compare French and Italian approaches to the subject. After graduation, she specialized in data protection law and intellectual property law, collaborating as a lawyer with prestigious law firms.

She successfully earned her PhD in “Law, Market, and Person” (advisor: Prof. C. Irti) in 2024 at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. In 2022, as part of her doctoral studies, she was a Visiting PhD Student at DReDIS (Laboratoire du Droit de l’Immatériel de la Sorbonne) of IRJS, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Her research adopts an Italian and EU law perspective on copyright and emerging technology law, focusing on the repercussions of new technologies—including generative artificial intelligence—on contemporary social, economic, and legal frameworks.

In particular, her MSCA project “musAIc” aims to explore the impacts of generative artificial intelligence on the music industry as “systemic risks” under the Artificial Intelligence Act. Within the same project, from January 2026 to July 2026, she will conduct a research period as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia Law School, New York.

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Current Position(s)

• Visiting Scholar at Columbia Law School, New York, under the supervision of Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg (January 2026 – present).

• MSCA Researcher (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions) – Global Postdoctoral Fellowship with the musAIc project, at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the University of Zurich (December 2026 – present).

• "Cultore della materia" (researcher assistant) in Private Law at the Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (February 2021 – present).

Previous position(s)

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow (within the framework of the Age-it partnership) at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (December 2023 – November 2025).

• Lecturer for the course “Data Management and Legal Issues” in the Master’s Degree program in Digital and Public Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Academic Years 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 (September 2024 – November 2025).

• Member of the multidisciplinary working group “Synergy4AI” at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (January 2023 – November 2025).

• University Tutor in Private Law, Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (February 2021 – September 2023).

• University Tutor for European Private Law, Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (February – September 2023).

• Visiting PhD Student, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut de recherche juridique de la Sorbonne, DReDIS Laboratory (Laboratoire du Droit de l’Immatériel de la Sorbonne), Paris (January 2022 – September 2022).

Academic Education

• PhD in "Law, Market and Person", Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (September 2020 – May 2024) - Thesis in Copyright Law: “AI-Generated Works e Diritto D’autore nell’era del Capitalismo Cognitivo. Un’occasione di riaffermazione della funzione sociale della proprietà intellettuale” - Coordinator of the program and doctoral thesis supervisor: Prof. Claudia Irti - Final mark: Excellent.
• Attendance of the Spring School “(re)Humanising Creativity” (15–20 May 2025), organized by the CREATe Centre, University of Glasgow, as part of the research period conducted as a Visiting Scholar at the same centre (May 2025).
• Participant in the EPIP 2024 PhD Workshop, organized within the framework of the annual conference of the international association EPIP on “Intellectual Property and the Future of the Data Economy” (10 September 2024).
• Attendance of the Summer School on “La responsabilità civile nell’era digitale (Civil liability in the digital age)”, within the Ca’ Foscari “special higher education” project, September 6-10, 2021.
• Master’s degree in law (110/110 cum laude and academic plaudits), Faculty of Law, University of Bari (a.y. 2014/2015) - Thesis in Civil Law, “Le Garanzie mobiliari sui beni immateriali. La riforma francese e l’approccio italiano (English title: Security Law over Intangible assets. The French reform and the Italian approach)”, Supervisor: Prof. Giorgio Resta.
• Research at the Faculté de Droit of the Université de Bordeaux within the European ERASMUS+ study program, January 2015 - June 2015.
• High school diploma, “Licenza liceale classica”, at Liceo Classico “Tito Livio” (100/100), Martina Franca, TA, 2010.

Non-Academic Education

• Attendance of “Ciclo di Seminari per il recepimento in Italia della Direttiva Copyright” organized by ALAI Italia, February 2023 – June 2024
• Attendance of the Academic Writing class for English speakers (levels B2-C2) by Prof. Eve Sevgi-Sole, provided by the CLA of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, February 2024 – May 2024.

Languages

• Italian: native speaker.
• French: experienced user (certified level: C1)
• English: experienced user (IELTS band score 7.0)

TCF - test de connaissance de langue française : Level C1 (July 9, 2021)

IELTS certificate (April 06, 2019) - Level: C1 (overall band score 7.0)

Lectures

• Lectures given in my quality of Research fellow on “The protection of AI-generated works in EU IP law”:
  • as part of the classes on Internet Law, taught by Prof. Claudia Irti at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Sectember 30 and October 1, 2, 7, 2024
  • as part of the classes on Intellectual Property Law, taught by Prof. Barbara Pasa, IUAV University of Venice, April 11, 2024.
  • as part of the classes on International Economic Law, taught by research fellow Giulia Bazzoni at University of Verona, April 9, 2024.
  • as part of the classes on Data Management and Legal issues, taught by Dr. Alessandro Bernes at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, November 23, 2022.
  • as part of the classes International Law for the arts taught by Dr. A. Vettorel at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, December 6, 2021.

• Lectures given in my quality of Tutor for the teaching of Private Law at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice:
  • supplementary lectures for the teaching of Private Law taught by Prof. Claudia Irti, Corso di Laurea in Economia Aziendale, 2020-2021, 2022-2023.
  • supplementary lectures for the teaching of Private Law taught by Prof. Roberto Senigaglia, Corso di Laurea in Economia Aziendale, 2020-2021, 2022-2023.
  • supplementary lectures for the teaching of Private Law taught by Prof. Marco Ticozzi, Corso di Laurea in Economia Aziendale, 2021-2022.
  • supplementary lectures for the teaching of European Private Law II taught by Prof. Barbara Pasa, Corso di Laurea in Economia, 2022/2023.

• Lectures given within professional privacy training courses:
  • for employees of sports federations, health sector companies, debt collection companies and Credit Brokerage Companies - "GDPR, Privacy and Data Protection”, 2018-2019.
  • on Data Subject Rights under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, at the European University of Rome as part of the “Corso di Perfezionamento universitario e aggiornamento professionale in materia di trattamento dei dati personali per Data Protection Officer”, April 28, 2018.

Conferences and seminars

• Speech at the 2025 annual conference of the international association ATRIP on “Exploring the Interface Between Intellectual Property and Justice: Theory and Practice in a Dynamic Reality” with a paper called "Intellectual Property Law and Distributive Justice: A New Path Toward a More Sustainable Copyright Law?" (24 June 2025).

• Speech at the 2024 Convegno Nazionale SIRD "Ambiente, economia, e società: la misura della sostenibilità nelle diverse culture giuridiche" with a paper called “The unbearable (and unsustainable) social impact of AI-generated ‘cultural monism’ in the era of knowledge capitalism” (September 2024).

• Speech at EPIP Annual Conference 2024 - "Intellectual Property and the Future of the Data Economy" with a paper called “AI-generated ‘cultural monism’ in the era of knowledge capitalism: the systematic risk raised by genAI systems as systemic risk and the uncertain role of Copyright Law” (September 2024).

• Speech at the presentation of the volume “D. Kennedy, Violenza maschile, sexy dressing e eroticizzazione del dominio, Marella, Marini (ed.), Interferenze, Editoriale Scientifica, 2022” (May 23, 2024).
• Talk at the General Meeting Age-It “Age-it: Ageing Well in an Ageing Society” on “The “techno-vulnerability” of Elderly People in the Elder Care Sector” (May 20, 2024).
• Seminar on “L’approccio basato sul rischio nel GDPR e nell’AI Act” within the Progetto Dottorale di Alta Formazione in Scienze Giuridiche of Ca’ Foscary University of Venice (April 10, 2024).
• Speech at the presentation of the volume “S. Garattini, Brevettare la salute? Una medicina senza mercato, Il Mulino, 2022” (February 8, 2024)
• Speech at the “XXXIX Coordinamento dei Dottorati di Ricerca in Diritto Privato – 2 e 3 febbraio 2024”, at University of Siena (February 2, 2024).
• Talk at the Rencontres des Écoles doctorales de Venise et Paris Nanterre on the “Discrimination of women (and the elderly) in pharmacological scientific research and the need for a rethinking of intellectual property in a sustainable way” (October 12-14, 2023).
• Seminar on “Intellectual Property Law and Generative AI” at the Department of Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica, Prof. Tino Cortesi, June 8, 2023.
• Talk at the panel discussion titled “Chat GPT: artificial intelligence software and impacts on data protection” with Guido Scorza, Component of the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (Italian data protection Authority), organized by the DPO Innovation association (June 12, 2023).
• Talk at the session “Chat GPT, Open AI and Privacy” of the “2023 Privacy Symposium Conference” (April 20, 2023)
• Speech at the presentation of the volume “G. Zaccaria, Postdiritto. Nuove fonti, nuove categorie, Il Mulino, 2022” (February 23, 2023).
• Speech at the presentation of the volume “R. Senigaglia, C. Irti, A. Bernes (a cura di), Privacy and Data Protection in Software Services, Springer, 2022” (October 18, 2022).
• Speech at the presentation of the volume“C. Irti, Consenso ‘negoziato’ e circolazione dei dati personali”, Giappichelli, 2021” (June 17, 2022).
• Talk at the workshop “Copyright and New Technologies” organized by The Spark Creative Hub, Naples (May 25, 2022)
• Talk at the workshop “Privacy in Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. Business applications and social implications” organized by PrivacyConnect Rome by OneTrust (April 21, 2022).
• Speech at the interim review of the PoSeID-on Project No. 786713 European Comm. - Horizon2020 Digital security (Oct. 23, 2019)
• Speech at the “South Paris drill and Plenary Meeting” of the Horizon 2020 DEFENDER Project - consortium agreement no. 740898, at the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre in Paris (June 26-28, 2019).
• Speech at the Kick-off meeting of the PoSeID-on Project No. 786713 European Comm. - Horizon2020 Digital security (June 11-12, 2018).

Major collaborations

• 2024 Collaboration with Prof. Claudia Irti, Prof. Sara De Vido, Prof. Barbara Pasa, Prof. Michele Marzulli, Prof. Sabrina Marchetti, Prof. Laura Candiotto et. al. For the writing of the proposal “UNIagainstVAW - Universities against gender-based violence against women: Law, Art and Philosophy for Prevention” for the CERV-2024-DAPHNE - Call for proposals to prevent and combat gender-based violence and violence against children. (Results pending)
• 2023/2024 Collaboration with Prof. Claudia Irti, Prof. Claudia Cascione, Prof. Maurizio Del Conte, Prof. Francesca De Vecchi, Dr. Francesca Forlè, Dr. Silvio Sonnati within the Age-IT partnership.
• 2022/2023 Collaboration with Prof. Paolo Falcarin, Dr. Teresa Scantamburlo, Dr. Chiara Gallese et al. regarding the joint publication “Software Systems Compliance with the AI Act. Lessons Learned from an International Challenge, 2023, DOI:10.1145/3643691.3648589”.
• 2022/2023 Collaboration with Prof. Agostino Cortesi (UNIVE) and Researchers Dr. Alessandro Bernes (UNIVE), Dr Shaira Thobani (UNITO) for the writing of the proposal for the PRIN PNRR 2022 Project “PADS4Health (Privacy-Aware Data Sharing model for Health data)”. (Funded)
• 2022 Collaboration with Prof. Celia Zolynski, Prof. Judith Rochfeld within the L'Observatoire de l'Intelligence artificielle de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne during my research period at University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
• 2020/2021 Collaboration with Prof. Giovanni Maria Riccio regarding the joint publication “G.M. Riccio, F. Rotolo, La tutela in Italia delle opere dell’ingegno create dall’intelligenza artificiale: la necessità di un’analisi in chiave prospettica, in B. Pasa (a cura di), Design e innovazione digitale. Dialogo interdisciplinare per un ripensamento delle tutele (Design and digital innovation. An interdisciplinary dialogue for reshaping legal protections), Comparative Art Law – Diritto comparato dell’arte, ESI, 2021”.
• 2018/2020 Collaboration with Prof. Giovanni Maria Riccio (e-lex), Prof. Guido Scorza (Italian Data Protection Authority), Prof. Ernesto Belisario (e-lex), Adriana Peduto (e-lex), Carmen Occhipinti (CyberEthics Lab. Srls) et al. within the project PoSeID-on and DEFENDER of the Horizon 2020 Digital security program (see below).

Participation in research groups

• Member of the multidisciplinary working group “Synergy4AI” at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice for the University of St. Gallen Grand Challenge in Artificial Intelligence, 2023.
• Member of the research team of the European funded project PoSeID-on (Protection and control of Secured Information by means of a privacy enhanced Dashboard) of the Horizon 2020 Digital security program, Grant agreement ID: 786713, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/786713, May 2018 - November 2018.
• Member of the research team of the European funded project DEFENDER of the Horizon 2020 Digital security program, Grant agreement ID: 740898, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/740898, June 2019.

Other professional experiences

• Civil lawyer, registered since 2019 in the professional register of the Bari Bar Association.
• Legal consultant and attorney at Studio Legale Tributario in association with Ernst & Young, Rome office, November 2019 - April 2023.
• Legal consultant and attorney at e-lex Law Firm, Rome, February 2018 - November 2019.
• Practitioner at MLT Partners law firm, Rome, January 2017 - January 2018.
• Intern at the law firm ADL Legal LLP (now ADL Solicitors LTD), London, June - September 2016.

Participation on editorial boards of journals

• Participation as a member of the editorial board of the Journal Jus Civile, published by Giappichelli, “Rivista Classe A”, March 2021 - to the actual date.

Affiliations

• Member of the Association Italian Academy of Internet Code (IAIC) since 2023
• Member of ALAI Italy since 2023, Italian group of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale

Awards and other activities

• Participation as a Jury member for the workshop “The AI Act Competition” within the “Privacy Symposium” conference in Venice (June 14, 2024).
• Participation as a Jury member for the workshop “The AI Act Competition” within the “CPDP AI 2024” conference (May 22, 2024).
• Prize for the paper entitled “Creatività vs. Originalità: la qualificazione di ‘opera dell’ingegno’ nell’era dell’intelligenza artificiale” in the contest organized by Fashion and Arts Law Review (March 2023).
• Selected as participant at the ACM ICSE 2024 conference, RAIE workshop, with the paper “T. Scantamburlo, P. Falcarin, C. Gallese, F. Rotolo et al., Software Systems Compliance with the AI Act. Lessons Learned from an International Challenge, 2023, DOI:10.1145/3643691.3648589”.