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New Technologies and Law Research Group Members

Professor Sylvia Papadopoulos

Chair

Sylvia Papadopoulos is a full-time Associate Professor in the Department of Private Law as well as the acting director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Law at the University of Pretoria. She holds the degrees BLC, LLB, LLM (cum laude) and LLD from the University of Pretoria. Her thesis was entitled “Selected Aspects of ECommerce, Digital Content and Consumer Protection in South Africa.” She is also an admitted as an advocate of the High Court of South Africa.

After graduating with her LLB from the University of Pretoria, Sylvia joined the Department of Land Affairs as a legal researcher in the Restitution of Land Division, researching and validating restitution land claims. In 2003 she taught at the Damelin School of Banking and in 2004 she joined the Department of Mercantile Law, University of Pretoria as an assistant researcher and part-time lecturer.

Professor Papadopoulos specializes in the fields of Law & Technology, Cyber Law, Digital Law and/or Internet Law and has published a number of peer-reviewed national and international publications, presented at both national and international conferences and has made regular appearances on television and radio. She is also an author and the editor of a leading book on these topics entitled Cyberlaw @ SA III: The Law of the Internet in South Africa (2012), the recently published Cyberlaw @ SA

IV: The Law of the Internet in South Africa (Jan 2022) published by Van Schaiks

(https://vanschaiknet.com/book/view/525). International publications include a monograph on South African Data Privacy Law for the International Encyclopaedia of Privacy and Technology Law (Privacy and Data Protection). Professor Papadopoulos has advised the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on limited aspects of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, and is the current chair of the New Technologies and the Law Working Group for the prestigious Law Schools Global League (LSGL). She has participated (by invite) in sessions with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group IV (Electronic Commerce) 51st session New York in 2015. Professor Papadopoulos has been engaged in external research projects on age ratings in games and online content with the Films and Publications Board and collaborated with the Attorney General Alliance Africa on aspects of technology and law, privacy and consumer protection.

Francisco de Elizalde

 

Kai Feng

Director and Professor of the America-China Law Institute at CUPL

Kai Feng is the Director and Professor of the America-China Law Institute at CUPL. She obtained her Ph. D in law from RUC, Master in Law from SDU and Bachelor in Law from SDNU. Her teaching and research centers on the comparative tort law, cyber law and children legal protection. Her publications include the books as “Nutshell of Chinese Tort Liability Law”, “American Tort Law: Cases and Explanations”, “Limitation of Actions”, and numerous papers in the related areas. Kai Feng used to work as the research fellow in Munich University, R. Randle Edwards Fellow in Columbia Law School, guest professor in IUB Maurer School of Law, and Leslie Wright Fellow in the Faculty of Law of HKU. She is the director member of both Chinese Society of Internet & Information Law and Chinese Society of Comparative Law.

Kai Feng speaks English and Chinese.

Luca Belli

Luca Belli, PhD, is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Law School, where he directs the Center for Technology and Society (CTS-FGV) and the CyberBRICS project. Luca is also associated researcher at Centre de Droit Public Comparé of Paris 2 University and editor of the International Data Privacy Law Journal, published by Oxford University Press. He is currently member of the Board of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and Director of the Latin-American edition of the Computers Privacy and Data Protection conference (CPDP LatAm). Before joining FGV, Luca worked as an agent for the Council of Europe Internet Governance Unit and served as a Network Neutrality Expert for the Council of Europe.

He is author of more than 50 publications in English, French, Portuguese Spanish and Italian. His research explores several areas of Internet Governance and regulation, focusing on data protection, Internet access, and digital transformation, with a particular interest in the digital policies of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). Luca’s works have been quoted by numerous media outlets, including The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, Le Monde, BBC, China Today, The Hill, O Globo, Folha de São Paulo, El Pais, and La Stampa. Luca holds a PhD in Public Law from Université Panthéon-Assas, Paris 2. He can be found on LinkedIn and on Twitter. A list of Luca’s publications can be found on his Lattes page and further information on his work can be found on his personal website.

Nicolo Zingales

Nicolo Zingales is Professor of Information Law and Regulation at the law school of the Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, where he heads the e-commerce research group. Other affiliations include the Center for Internet & Society at Stanford Law School (as Affiliate Scholar); the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (as Research Associate); the Tilburg Law and Economics Center (as Extramural Fellow); and CADE, the Brazilian competition authority (as PNUD consultant). He is also founding member of MyData Global and leader of its Brazilian hub. Fascinated by the interaction of law, technology and markets, he researches and provides expert advice on a range of issues revolving around the roles and responsibilities of digital platforms and intermediaries in the online ecosystem. His research has been cited, among others, by the Council of Europe, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Protection and Promotion of Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, UK House of Lords, and the European Parliament. He tweets at @Justechne.

Cristina Poncibò

Cristina Poncibò is Professor of Comparative Private Law at the Law Department of the University of Turin, Italy and Visiting Professor at the Georgetown Law Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London. She is Fellow of the Transatlantic Technology Law Forum (Stanford Law School and Vienna School of Law). She teaches Comparative Law, Contracts, EU Competition Law, and Blockchain and the Law. Her most recent edited books include: Contracting and Contract Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Hart, 2021, forthcoming, with M. Ebers and M. Zou) and The Cambridge Handbook of Smart Contracts, Blockchain Technology and Digital Platforms (Cambridge University Press, 2019, with L. Matteo and M. Cannarsa). Cristina is a member of the International Association of Comparative Law and Delegate of the Law Department (sponsor institution) to the American Association of Comparative Law. She is also a member of ELI, Juris Diversitas and the Law & Society Association. She regularly acts as an expert for European institutions and international organizations and she is a coordinator of the Master in International Trade Law, co-organised with ITC-ILO, in cooperation with Unicitral and Unidroit. Cristina is a graduate of the University of Turin (MA) and Florence (PhD) and was an associate in an international law firm in the city of London and an intern in the Italian Competition Authority. In her career, she has been a Marie Curie IEF Fellow (Université Panthéon-Assas) and a Max Weber Fellow (EUI).

Rosa María Rojas Vértiz Contreras

Rosa is a Mexican lawyer with a LL.M. in Corporate and Commercial Law from the London Schools of Economics and Political Science, and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIJ-UNAM).

She practised extensively as a transactional lawyer in the Banking and Finance Group of a leading Mexican firm. Then she joined the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico. Currently she is a part-time professor and researcher at ITAM.

Rosa has participated as speaker on insolvency and business law issues on panels, conferences and seminars within Mexico, in New York, Tokyo, Spain, Turkey and Latin America; and has publications in the Boletín Mexicano de Derecho Comparado, Springer Nature, Wolters Kluwer, Bosch Mexico, Tirant Lo Blanch and in The Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice.

Since 2021 Rosa has coordinated many private law courses at the School for Federal Judges in Mexico many courses and seminars to train federal judges and law clerks.