Professor Guido Noto La Diega
Law
Personal statement
An award-winning Italy-born naturalised British law academic with a passion for the law of emerging technologies, Professor Guido Noto La Diega (they/he) is a Professor of Law, Technology and Innovation and Programme Leader of the LLM/MSc Law, Technology, and Innovation at the University of Strathclyde's School of Law in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, where they mentor an excellent team carrying out pioneering research at the intersection of law, technology, and innovation.
Appointed directly by the Principal of the University through the Global Talent Acquisition Programme, Noto La Diega brings to Strathclyde an internationally recognised expertise is in the European, Italian, and British legal and regulatory approaches to Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, and blockchain. Their work is animated by the conviction that the law should steer innovation in a socially just, inclusive, and sustainable direction.
After completing a fully funded PhD in Private Law at the University of Palermo, Noto La Diega moved to the UK to carry out research at Queen Mary University of London (Microsoft Cloud Computing Research Centre, a collaboration between the Centre for Commercial Law Studies and the Cambridge Computer Lab). After some temporary positions at the University of Glasgow and Buckinghamshire New University, Noto La Diega became a tenured lecturer at Northumbria University, where they co-founded and co-convened the Northumbria Internet & Society Research Group and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2018. In 2020, they moved to Scotland as Associate Professor at the University of Stirling, where they co-founded and led the Just AI Lab, and was promoted to Professor in 2023 before joining Strathclyde in 2024.
Noto La Diega is the author of the groundbreaking open-access book Internet of Things and the Law and of several articles in leading international journals such as the European Intellectual Property Review and European Journal of Law & Technology; they also appeared in mainstream popular press such as Vogue, Sky News, CNET, Il Sole 24 Ore, ABC, and Wired. Noto La Diega’s works – published in English and Italian, and translated into Chinese, Russian, and Korean – have been cited by the EU Court of Justice's Advocate General, the House of Lords, the UK Intellectual Property Office, the World Economic Forum, the European Parliament, and the Council of Europe, amongst others. As a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on AI and Data in Education and Training, Noto La Diega contributed to the EU Guidelines on AI in Education.
Noto La Diega has a strong bidding record, having been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Horizon Europe, the German Research Foundation, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Society of Legal Scholars, the British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association, the Modern Law Review, and Santander. They are currently leading the half-a-million-pound international project “From Smart Technologies to Smart Laws” (AHRC-DFG). They have 15 years’ academic experience in the UK, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Brazil, and the US, and they have delivered keynote speeches and presented their research in prestigious venues including the WTO Public Forum in Geneva, the Computers, Privacy & Data Protection Conference in Brussels, and the Intellectual Property Scholars Conference in New York.
Outside of Strathclyde, Noto La Diega is a Martin-Flynn Global Law Professor in the School of Law at the University of Connecticut; Fellow of the Nexa Center for Internet and Society; Expert of the European Data Protection Board; Research Associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies; Scotland Advisory Council Member of the Open Rights Group; Advisory Board Member of the Gender Equality Special Interest Group at the European Law Institute; Steering Committee Member at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO – Academic Research Programme); External Expert of the European Data Protection Board; and Research Grants Committee Member at the Society of Legal Scholars, the oldest and largest society of law academics in the UK and Ireland.
Alongside research, teaching, and consultancy, Noto La Diega is a qualified lawyer called to the Bar of Italy in 2013 (non-practising) and an LGBTQ+ rights advocate.
Publications
- Privacy law, IoT
- Noto La Diega Guido
- Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence and the Law (2025) (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035336906.00082
- When the internet gets under our skin : reassessing consumer law and policy in a society of cyborgs
- Clubbs Coldron Benjamin, Noto La Diega Guido, Twigg-Flesner Christian, Busch Christoph, Stolte Tabea, de Vries Marc-Oliver
- Journal of Consumer Policy Vol 48, pp. 205-232 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-024-09581-y
- Idea
- Noto La Diega Guido
- Elgar Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property Law (2025) (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800886933.idea
- General Court (Role in IP Cases)
- Noto La Diega Guido
- Elgar Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property Law (2025) (2025)
- Publishing contract
- Noto La Diega Guido
- Elgar Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property Law (2025) (2025)
- Idea (concept of)
- Noto La Diega Guido
- Elgar Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property Law (2025) (2025)
Professional Activities
- Guest in the "100 Migrant Academics UK" podcast
- Recipient
- 2/2/2026
- Podcast episode ‘The Things that Matter: Trajectories of Regulation in the (A)IoT with Guido Noto La Diega’ (Podcast: Legal4Tech)
- Recipient
- 21/1/2026
- EU regulation of AI deepfakes – commentary for the EU Observer
- Recipient
- 7/1/2026
- Edinburgh Napier University
- Visiting researcher
- 2025
- University of Helsinki
- Visiting researcher
- 2025
- Universita degli Studi di Palermo
- Visiting researcher
- 2024
Projects
- Developing a Regulatory and Deployment Framework for Smart Social Housing Sensors
- Noto La Diega, Guido (Principal Investigator)
- This is a Glasgow City Region-funded consultancy project led by Intelligens Consulting.
Glasgow City Region faces a clear challenge: there is no practical, trusted framework to guide RSLs on the lawful and proportionate use of sensor technologies in social housing
Uncertainty across data protection, human rights, tenancy law, fairness, consent and safeguards creates hesitation, inconsistent practice and missed opportunities
RSLs want to adopt sensors but fear “getting the law wrong.” Current advice is fragmented and not grounded in deployment realities
This project will fill that gap
We will develop a clear, authoritative Smart Social Assets Handbook explaining:– what deployments are lawful and proportionate– the regulatory and operational basis for each scenario– what data can be collected, shared and retained– how to communicate with and protect tenants– the safeguards and governance required– how to prepare for new technologies
Our methodology defines a taxonomy of assessment factors and produces profiles for each use-case (agreed by a working group convened by GCR) that set out intrusiveness, permissions and safeguards—resulting in a practical PDF guide for consistent decision-making
The output will be a trusted framework supported by templates, workflows, governance guidance and foundations for a future digital/AI knowledge base
Our team combines regulatory insight, evidence-based research, IoT deployment experience and legal scholarship
Central to this is Professor Guido Noto La Diega, a leading expert in IoT law, consumer protection and digital rights, and author of Internet of Things and the Law
His leadership ensures the framework is legally robust, credible and aligned with emerging UK and EU thinking
We complement this with strong operational experience delivering IoT programmes with Wheatley Group, GMCA, Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, Perth & Kinross and others
This ensures guidance reflects how sensors work in real homes, including installation, permissions, tenant expectations, governance and data flows
Together, the team provides the strategic, legal and operational depth needed to give Glasgow City Region—and Scotland’s housing sector—the confidence to deploy smart social asset technologies safely and consistently - 01-Jan-2026
- Socially Progressive AI Lab
- Noto La Diega, Guido (Principal Investigator) Miyake, Esperanza (Principal Investigator) Harkens, Adam (Co-investigator) Moncur, Wendy (Co-investigator) Weaver, Beth (Co-investigator) Nikou, Stavros (Co-investigator) Jones, Benedict (Co-investigator) Cunningham, Scott (Co-investigator) Dorfler, Viktor (Co-investigator) Liu, Xi (Co-investigator)
- The Socially Progressive AI Lab (SPAI-Lab) is the University of Strathclyde's hub for impactful research, collaborative bids, engagement and networking—shaping policy, technical design and regulation in Scotland, the UK and internationally. Scotland's AI Strategy 2026-2013 spotlights the Lab as a key example of "world-leading AI research".
Based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, SPAI-Lab involves colleagues from all the faculties (Engineering, Science, Strathclyde Business School), bridging humanities‑led approaches and tech‑centred methods. The Lab's research and activities are guided by a commitment to socially progressive deployment of AI that advances equity, upholds human rights and serves the public good.
The SPAI-Lab brings together over 90 experts from across the University and is co-led by Dr Esperanza Miyake and Professor Guido Noto La Diega and is supported by a cross-Faculty, cross-departmental steering committee: Professor Wendy Moncur, Professor Beth Weaver,
Dr Stavros Nikou, Professor Ben Jones, Dr Xi Liu, Dr Adam Harkens, Professor Scott Cunningham, Professor Viktor Dorfler. - 26-Jan-2026
- Artificial Intelligence and Scots Law: Transforming the Future
- Noto La Diega, Guido (Academic)
-
This project is generously funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh under its Research Collaboration Grant Scheme.
This RSE supported project is led by Dr Lorna Gillies, University of Dundee with collaboration from Dr Michiel Poesen, University of Aberdeen, and with colleagues from the Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh Napier, Strathclyde and Stirling together with Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly used by businesses, organisations and markets to deliver goods and services to consumers more efficiently. Artificial Intelligence (AI) comprises narrow AI such as Large Language Models (LLMs), general AI being equivalent to human thinking and reasoning, and super AI which may in future supersede human thinking and reasoning. As society has become rapidly aware of AI's existence, the benefits and challenges of AI are beginning to emerge. AI may enable automated decisions, goods, services and medical diagnostics. However, the use of AI raises concerns about data protection and privacy, employment rights, consumer protection, equality, fundamental fairness and human rights. AI disrupts law and in response various jurisdictions have begun to review how current legal rules can apply, and what forms of transformational change of laws are necessary. These different AI forms have generated global, EU and national attention. Law makers seek to identify the benefits and risks of AI and how best to respond. In that context, existing laws must be considered to assess the extent to which they can apply or must transform to accommodate the benefits and risks inherent in the use, or misuse, of AI.
To what extent does Scots private law address the benefits and challenges of AI in society? The project focusses on different areas of Scots private law, namely contract and agency, property, delict, private international law and human rights and engages with a range of researchers and stakeholders. The objectives of the project will be to collate published papers from the Workshops as an open access resource. - 01-Jan-2024 - 01-Jan-2026
- Responsible AI: A Research Programme for the Law School
- Noto La Diega, Guido (Principal Investigator)
- Thanks to the New Professors Fund I have hired a research associate that is helping me shape a research programme on responsible AI and the law.
- 14-Jan-2024 - 14-Jan-2025
- From Smart Technologies to Smart Consumer Laws: Comparative Perspectives from Germany and the United Kingdom
- Noto La Diega, Guido (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
- MegaSkills Project - Ethics Advisory Board
- Noto La Diega, Guido (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2026