About
Fernando Rodríguez is a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant at the Department of Constitutional Law at the National University of Distance Education (UNED), Madrid; the biggest university in Spain providing education to some 200,000 students all around the world through the most innovative media. Fernando holds a degree in Law, with a special focus on Public Law, from the Carlos III University, Madrid. In February 2010, he obtained maximum marks in his Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) with his thesis entitled ‘The Freedom of Speech on the Internet’. He is currently reading his doctoral dissertation on ‘Net Neutrality as a Guarantee of the Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace’, under the guidance of Prof. Yolanda Gómez Sánchez.
As a research assistant, Fernando has taken part in three research projects on ‘Innovation and Fundamental Rights’; ‘Multilevel Constitutionalism and the Relationships between European Parliaments’; and ‘Policies against Female Discrimination’. The latter two being publicly funded by the Spanish Government.
As a teaching assistant, Fernando has spent the past three years teaching four different courses on Constitutional Law (Constitutional Law I, II, III and IV) at the UNED in Madrid. He is also a member of the teaching team for lifelong learning modular programs such as EU Law, Biomedicine, Biotechnology, Public Law for Civil Servants, and the Equality and Evaluation of Gender Impact. Fernando has also lectured as a guest speaker in the United States, Spain and, in the near future, Belgium. During his career, he has been awarded several grants for his high achieving academic results, and received a prize for his essay on gender equality from the Carlos III University in Madrid.
Prior to joining the Oxford Internet Institute, Fernando held a position as Visiting Researcher at Harvard University, in the Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School, from July to November 2010. He also received a grant for researching at the University of London (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies) and the University of Essex, United Kingdom, in 2009.
Fernando has not only participated in, but both contributed to the organization of, and presented papers at, a diverse range of national and international conferences including: the World Congress of the International Association of Constitutional Law; the Congress of the Spanish Association of Constitutional Law; the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy; and the Seminar on Constitutional Change in France and the United Kingdom (organized by the Franco-British Lawyers Society). His publications themselves deal with Cyberlaw, European Law, Innovative Legal Learning, and general constitutional issues.
Aside from being a lawyer admitted to the Bar Association of Madrid, Fernando is also an active member of a number of international law societies: the International Association of Constitutional Law; the European Community Studies Association; the Spanish Association of Constitutional Lawyers; the Fédération Internationale de Droit Européen; the Institute of the History of Intolerance – the only institute to depend on the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation – ; and the Internet Society.
His professional experience before entering into academia includes an internship at the Legal Department of Foreign Exchange Company (FEXCO) in Ireland, as well as a practicum at the Supreme Court of Spain.
Research Interests
Freedom of expression, net neutrality, human rights in the Internet, regulation problems, Internet governance, constitutional law, openness and innovation of the Internet, network control, end-to-end architecture, privacy, international privacy regulation, information governance, communication law, cyberlaw, global law.