Dr Fernando Barrio

Profile

Roles:

• Director of the BSc Business with Law
• QMUL Designated Focal Point to the United Nations Climate Change organisation
• Member of the Department of Business and Society

Biography:

Fernando joined Queen Mary University of London in 2018 as lecturer in both the School of Business and Management and the School of Law, after moving from Argentina, where he was Ordinary Professor of Cyberlaw and Director of Law at the Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. He is currently Reader in Sustainable Business Law and Policy at SBM.

Fernando carried out his undergraduate studies in International Relations at the Universidad de Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Law at the University of London. He has a Masters in International Cooperation Studies (Legal System of International Cooperation) from the Graduate School of International Development of Nagoya University and a Ph.D. in International Cooperation from Nagoya University, Japan, as well as a Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education from the London Metropolitan University, a Postgraduate Professional Diploma in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and a Postgraduate Certificate in Global Business and Politics from the Yale School of Management.

The main topic that underlines his scholarship and public engagement experience is the global regulation of information technologies, intellectual property, human rights and their application to different industries and business, with emphasis on the impact on business sustainability and climate change. Currently, Fernando focus rests on legal and policy issues of digital technologies, Artificial Intelligence and renewable energies applied to climate change adaptation and mitigation, in different regions, with projects pertaining to South East Asia, India and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fernando scholarship and practice also engages with the use of information technology for law teaching, with particular focus on assessment, and with internationalisation of higher education policies and their relationship with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. He is currently Senior Fellow of HEA.

In Argentina Fernando was principal researcher at the Public Policy and Government Research Institute of the Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro and Researcher Category 1 of the National System of Incentives to Academic Research of the Argentine Ministry of Education. Fernando was Japanese Ministry of Education and Science Scholar, the 2007 E. Desmond Lee Visiting Professor for Global Awareness at Webster University, HEA 2008 UK Law Teacher of the Year, and 2012 Rotary Peace Fellow.

Before entering full-time academia, he was Technical Advisor to the Governor of Rio Negro Province, Chief of Non Judicial Negotiations at Piatigorsky Lawyers, and was an adjunct member of the faculty at the School of Law and Social Sciences at the Universidad de Belgrano, all in Argentina.

He is a member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and the Health and Safety Committees of the School of Business and Management, as well as member of the University’s Sustainability Committee.

Fernando is a certified Scuba Diving Instructor and Emergency First Response Instructor.

Teaching

Undergraduate:

BUS142: Contemporary Legal Issues in Business Management

BUS205: Business Law

Fernando's has incorporated to his modules issues of Human Rights and business, the impact on businesses of Anti-discrimination law and sustainability regulatory framework affecting businesses, as well as including in all his modules the study of corporate governance principles as part of and complementing business legal requirements.

The assessment of the modules include co-creational aspects and students’ real-life scenarios that link the class contents with current issues and with the students’ reality and prospects. The contents and the assessment of the modules also contribute to Fernando’s scholarship on the relationship between internationalisation of the curriculum, use of digital technologies and the fulfilment of the UN SDGs.

In 2008 the British Higher Education Academy named him UK Law Teacher of the Year.

Research

Public Engagement

Fernando is the Queen Mary University of London Designated Focal Point to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He led QMUL delegation to UNFCCC COP26 and COP27, and has been named member of the United Nations Climate Change organisation Technology Executive Committee’s Digital Technologies Group, by the Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organisations constituency.

Fernando was the Head of International Relations of the Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro and in that capacity he has designed and directed academic networks that attracted funding from the Government of Argentina and from the EU, as well as being part of the Executive Committee of the Argentine National Universities International Cooperation Network.

He has engaged in consultancy with organizations in the public and private sector, including the Government of Argentina, the City of London Corporation and the Government of Italy. Fernando has participated as permanent observer to the Select Committee on Patents of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the follow-up meeting of the United Nations Worlds Summit for the Information Society, the UN Internet Governance Forum and has been invited to governmental fora in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

Fernando has given speeches and conferences in over 50 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania on Information Technology law and policy, business sustainability legal framework and governance, and Intellectual Property, and it has a stream of scholarship and engagement projects related to legal education and assessment.

In 2007 hosted the TV programme Global Thinking, on the Higher Education Channel of the US, he had a radio section on Global Policy issues on VyP Radio and has written in numerous magazines on IT and IP policy issues.

Scholarship, Consulting and Public Policy Projects

• Renewable Energy, Commons and Conflicts, SED Fund, June 2023~current.
• Analysis and support of the implementation of the National Determined Contributions submitted by Kingdom of Eswatini under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement, Research England Policy Fund, in cooperation with FGV Brazil and IEP Australia, Fernando Barrio (director), January 2022~June 2022
• Digital access and Malaysia Living Means Index development, Research England Policy Fund, in cooperation with CENPRIS Malaysia, Fernando Barrio (director), January 2021~current.
• “Regímenes internacionales de protección legal contra ciberdelitos y su implementación doméstica comparada” [International Regimes of Legal Protection against Cybercrimes and their Comparative Domestic Implementation], funded by the UNRN Research and Technology Transfer Secretary and developed in cooperation with the Viedma Lawyers Council and the Criminal Court of Appeals for the First Circuit of Rio Negro. Barrio, Fernando (director), July 2016-2018
• “buscAR Derecho” [Finding law], project to develop a course on legal analysis and research methods to be used by all law programmes in Argentina funded by the Ministry of Justice of Argentina through a national competitive bid, Barrio, Fernando (director), October 2017-2019
• “El Derecho Penal y la Protección de los Menores en Internet” [Criminal law and the protection of minors in Internet], funded by the Ministry of Justice of Argentina through a national competitive bid, Barrio, Fernando (director) May 2013~2017
• “Estudio y evaluación de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación para el desarrollo de ciudades inteligentes en Río Negro” [Study and evaluation of information and communication technologies for the development of smart cities in Rio Negro] funded by the Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro, Britos, Paola (director)
• Taking forward the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property: proposed changes to copyright exceptions, Open Rights Group, April 2008, UK

Scholarly Contributions

• “The Procrustean Nature of AI and the Legal Implications of Its Use in the Criminal System Decision Making of Argentina” (2023). In S. Edwards, III & J. Masterson (Eds.), Government Response to Disruptive Innovation: Perspectives and Examinations (pp. 80-92). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-6429-8.ch005
• “Producción agrícola urbana inteligente, sustentabilidad y derecho” (2023) [Urban smart-farming, sustainability and the law]. In J.C. Romero Michel & O.J. Solorio Perez (Eds.), Ciudades Inteligentes y Sostenibles: Garantizar la habitabilidad a través de los Derechos Humanos (pp. 117-132). Tirant lo Blanch. ISBN 9788419471987 (paper)/9788419471994 (e-book)
• “Analysis and support of the implementation of the National Determined Contributions submitted by Kingdom of Eswatini under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement”, Fernando Barrio (coordinator), QMUL, 2023
• “Legal and pedagogical issues with online exam proctoring” (2022), European Journal of Law and Technology, Vol. 13 No. 1
• Sun S, Ge X, Wen X, Barrio F, Zhu Y and Liu J (2022) “The Moderation of Human Characteristics in the Control Mechanisms of Rumours in Social Media: The Case of Food Rumours in China” Front. Psychol. 12:782313. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.782313
• Barrio, Fernando, Angela Mutsotso and  Atâyi Babs, Nigeria’s Climate Change Response: Analysis of the 2021 Nigeria Climate Change Act, Queen Mary Global Policy Institute (QMGPI) and the Climate & Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria, October 2022
• Barrio Fernando and Angela Mutsotso, “Preparing for a Warmer Sub-Saharan Africa - Focus on Kenya and South Africa”, policy report, Queen Mary Global Policy Institute, July 2022
• “Artificial Intelligence and Ethics”, Queen Mary Global Policy Institute, September 2021
• “Farming: computer law’s new (rather old) frontier”, Computers and Law, vol.30:6, pps 39-42, ISSN 0140-3249, December 2019, England
• “El derecho a la educación y la propietización de la información en el derecho argentino y comparado” (2017) [The right to education and the propietization of information in Argentine and compartive law], in Transferencia de Tecnología y Derecho, Aguilar Navarro, Carlos Oscar y Oscar Javier Solorio Perez, editors, ISBN 978-84-9143-625-6 Tirant Lo Blanch, México
• Barrio, Fernando y María Cecilia Sarricouet (2016), “El derecho penal y la pornografía infantil en el derecho comparado a nivel internacional, de Argentina, Estados Unidos y Europa”, [Criminal law and child pornography in the comparative law of Argentina, US and EU] 13:2 SCRIPTed, pps. 171-196, ISSN 1744-2567, University of Edinburgh
• “The Massive Cyberattack or Chronicle of a Strike Foretold”, Circle ID, 25 October 2016, online
• “La propietizacion de la informacion y el derecho a recibir conocimiento” (2015) [The propietization of information and the right to receive knowledge], Revista de Derecho Privado N°10, Vol. III, July 2015, pps. 3-19, ISSN 2250-7582 Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Argentina
• Barrio, Fernando y Alfredo Bozzetti, “From justice that bites to justice through bytes: towards a more transparent and efficient judicial system in the Rio Negro province of Argentina” (2014), in Revolutionizing the Interaction Between State and Citizens through Digital Communications, Edwards, Sam y Diogo Santos, editors, ISBN 978-146-6662-92-6 IGI Global, USA
• “La seguridad informática como requisito e imperativo procesal en la era digital” (2011) [Computer security as procedural requisite and necessity in the digital age], in Los medios electrónicos y el derecho procesal, Ximena Puente de la Mora, editor, pps 171-196, ISBN 978-607-9136-33-8, Colima, México
• López Jiménez, David y Fernando Barrio, "Los códigos de conducta reguladores del comercio electrónico en el espacio europeo. Los casos de Alemania, España e Italia " (2010) [Electronic commerce self regulation codes in the European area. The cases of Germany, Spain and Italy], in Derecho y Tecnología 11/2010, pps 33-68, ISSN 1317-9306 Universidad Católica de Tachira: Venezuela
• López Jiménez, David and Fernando Barrio, "El derecho de desistimiento en el ámbito de la contratación electrónica realizada en España" (2010) [The right of withdrawal in electronic contracts in Spain], 7:3 SCRIPTed, pps 497-514, ISSN1744-2567,  Scotland
• López Jiménez, David y Fernando Barrio, "Apuntes en torno a las marcas de distribuidor: una visión en el actual contexto de crisis económica" (2010) [Comments in relation to white brands: a view in the context of the current economic crisis], in Comunicaciones en Propiedad Intelectual y Derecho de la Competencia, N°57, pps 17-52, ISSN 1579-3494, Spain
• "Autonomous Robots and the Law" (2008), en Computers and Law, vol.19:4, pps 20-24, ISSN 0140-3249, England
• "Sobre la existencia del derecho informático" (2008) [On the existence of Computer Law], in AR: Revista de Derecho Informático, N°121, online, ISSN 1681- 5726, Peru
• “Caring About Cybersecurity or Preparing the Ground for an I-Patriot Act?”, Circle ID, 11 September 2008, online
• "Technical and Legal Concerns About Global Card Payments" (2007), in Cyberlaw for Global E-Business: Finance, Payments and Dispute Resolution, Takashi Kubota, editor, pps 128-141, ISBN 978-1-59904-828-4, IGI Global, USA
• "The consistent inconsistency in defining cyberspace spatial legal boundaries" (2007), in Revista Académica, Universidad de La Salle, Año IV N° 8, pps 83-100, ISSN1665-8639, Mexico
• “Regulación o autorregulación de los derechos del consumidor en Internet? Esa es la cuestión” (2006) [Regulation or self regulation of consumer rights in Internet? That is the question], Revista de Derecho, Comunicaciones y Nuevas Tecnologías, N 2, pps 123-136, ISSN 1794-9254, Colombia
• “Time to rethink TRIPS?”, Intellectual Property Watch, Switzerland, August 2006. ISSN 1661-7355 online
• “Doi Tung Development Project” (1999), F. Barrio et al, in Overseas Fieldwork Report 1998. An Integrated Development Analysis of Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A case Study, Nagoya University
• “Marketing, law and economic development: The case of Huay Poo Mai village in Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand” (1999), in Overseas Fieldwork Report 1998. An Integrated Development Analysis of Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A case Study