Profile
Roles:
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.
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
