Distinguished Italian legal scholar and politician Professor Stefano Rodotà  will deliver a guest lecture on ‘Reinventing the Body’ at the invitation of the Centre for Critical Thought at Kent Law School.

The lecture will explore the concept of the body and who owns it. More specifically, Professor Rodotà will ask if the body is still the product of biology or whether it is more the result of multiple interventions made possible by techno-science.

Professor Rodotà , currently Professor of Civil Law at the Sapienza University of Rome, is a former Italian presidential candidate in the 2013 elections and was a Shadow Minister of Justice in Italy in 1989. He has given lectures and seminars in universities around the world and is also Professor at the Institute for Human Sciences at Firenze. In addition, he is Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and Visiting Scholar at Stanford School of Law.

Numerous political positions Professor Rodotà  has held in Italy and Europe include: Member and former Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights; European Union Chair of the Italian Internet Governance Forum; President of the Italian Commission on Environment (2007); President of the Italian Data Protection Commission (1997-2005); President of the European Group on Data Protection (2000-2004); Member of the European Group on Ethics of Science and Technologies (1993-2005); Member of the Convention for the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000).

The lecture will be held in Darwin Lecture Theatre 2 at 17.00 on Tuesday 2 February. A full abstract is available online at: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/law-news/files/2016/01/Reinventing-the-body.pdf