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.

• Untangling the Knots of Open Banking and Competition in the EU: BigTechs, Financial Intermediation, and Beyond, in A. Palmieri, G. Versaci (eds.), European Legal Strategies for payment systems in the Open Banking Age, Book series of the Department of Law of the University of Siena, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane (ESI) Editore, 2023, pp. 51-69.
• Beyond Tradition: Rethinking the Concept of Abuse of Dominance Through the Lens of Personal Data Protection, A. Palmieri, R. Pavoni, M. Ventura, G. Milani (eds.), Boosting European Security Law and Policy, Book series of the Department of Law of the University of Siena, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane (ESI) Editore, 2021, pp. 257-269.
• The Impact of the GDPR on Extra EU Legal Systems: The Case of the Kingdom of Bahrain, in M. Tzanou (ed.), Personal Data Protection and Legal Developments in the European Union, IGI Global, 2020, pp. 223-237 (with E. Alsarraf).

• A Comparative Approach to Open Banking and Competition, in Quaderni di Ricerca Giuridica della Banca d’Italia No. 93, 2022, pp. 145 -168.
• Conference Proceedings of 1st Annual Research Symposium on International Commercial Arbitration (ed.), Royal University for Women, 2020, available at https://unov.tind.io/record/70130?ln=zh_CN.
• Cybersecurity as Enterprise Risk Within and Beyond the Bahraini Legal Framework, in Conference Proceedings of the ‘Sustainability and Resilience Conference’ organized by University of Bahrain and Northumbria University, UK. 15-16 October 2018
• Women’s Role in International Commercial Arbitration Between Education and Legal Profession, in Conference Proceedings of the 2nd RUW Conference on Women and Society in collaboration with Gulf Education ‘Empowering Women through Higher Education,’ 18-19 April 2018, pp. 44-56 (with A. Saleh).

• Practice Note Questions and Answers on Companies 2024 – Bahrain, in LexisNexis Middle East GCC – Middle East Corporate Counsel Advisor, August 2024.
• Practice Note on Bahrain Arbitration Law – Updates 2024, in LexisNexis Middle East – Gulf Legal Advisor series, August 2024.
• Practice Note on What is Institutional Arbitration, in LexisNexis Middle East – Gulf Legal Advisor series, February 2024.
• Practice Note on What is International Arbitration, in LexisNexis Middle East – Gulf Legal Advisor series, September 2023.
• Practice Note on E-Commerce (Including Distance Selling and Online Contracts) in Bahrain – Updates 2023, in LexisNexis Middle East – Gulf Legal Advisor series, July 2023.
• Practice Note on Consumer Protection in Bahrain – Updates 2023, in LexisNexis Middle East – Gulf Legal Advisor series, June 2023.
• Selective Distribution Online in the Aftermath of the Coty Germany Case, in Opinio Juris in Comparatione, Pacini Giuridica Press, Vol. 1/2020, pp. 31-43.
• Competition Law in the GCC Countries: The Tale of a Blurry Enforcement, in Chinese Business Review, Vol. 16, No. 3, 2017, pp. 141-149.
• In Europe’s Shadow: Obstacles to Monetary Union and Common Payment Systems in the Gulf Cooperation Council, in IANUS – International Journal of Law and Finance, No. 13 bis – Special Issue 2016, Jean Monnet Project, pp. 7-22.

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’.