Dr. Maria Casoria

Dr. Maria Casoria is an experienced academic, a university administrator, and an independent legal and business consultant with extensive work experience across three continents. Before joining Euro University of Bahrain, she served as the Executive Director for Overseas Operations in the Office of the Provost and a Visiting Professor of Law at West Virginia University (WVU) in the USA. While at WVU, she worked extensively with universities, embassies, and public organisations from different countries in the Middle East and Asia to establish academic, research and student-related partnerships. Previous academic appointments include faculty positions and academic collaborations in Bahrain and the UAE, with a focus on Commercial Law and Alternative Dispute, and in Italy, where she specialised in Competition Law and Comparative Private Law.

Dr Casoria earned a Bachelor of Law and International Organisations, a Master of Laws, and a Ph.D. in Markets Law, all from the University of Siena, Italy.

She is an Italian-licensed Attorney and a Mediator in Civil and Commercial Disputes. She has been a fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2017, an Associate at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators since 2019, and a member of the American Bar Association since 2016.

In addition to her academic experience, Dr Casoria has been a General Counsel and legal advisor in Bahrain, where she also founded a consultancy firm, a legal counsel in Italy and worked at the Italian Competition Authority.

Dr Casoria’s scholarship focuses on Competition Law, particularly in digital markets and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Commercial law, and alternative dispute resolution. She is an expert in Open Banking and competition, and is interested in law and technology, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. Notably, she has been a Global Stiefel Fellow in Antitrust and IP Rights at the New York Law School – Institute for Information Law, New York, USA.

Dr Casoria has been a speaker at various international conferences, a co-organiser of research symposia and conferences, and a member of a working group for the establishment of a research centre on gender issues and women’s empowerment in the Middle East. Currently, she is a contributing author to LexisNexis Middle East.

External Research Funding

• 2020-2022 – European Union Research Grant Jean Monnet Activities: Researcher within the research group led by the University of Siena, Department of Law, Italy, in the project: ‘European Legal Strategies for Payment Systems in the Open Banking Age’.
• 2018-2020 – European Union Research Grant Jean Monnet Activities: Key Staff Member of the research group led by the University of Siena, Department of Law, Italy, in the project: ‘Boosting European Security Law and Policy: Focus on Flows of Migrants, Data Security and Movement of Capitals’.