Domenico Rosani (1991) is a tenured assistant professor at the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology as well as a member of the Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (Renforce). He holds a double PhD from the Universities of Innsbruck (Austria) and Padova (Italy). Previously, he worked at the University of Innsbruck and at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Domenico is also a visiting professor at the University of Trento in Italy.

Domenico’s expertise lies in European and comparative criminal law, with an emphasis on human rights protection, children’s rights, and technology. He is particularly focused on the legal systems of Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and on issues at the interface between national criminal law, EU law and international law. In these fields, Domenico has repeatedly advised national, European and international institutions, such as the Lanzarote Committee of the Council of Europe and the Council of the European Union.

At Utrecht University, he teaches a wide range of courses related to his research expertise. He is also the capita selecta coordinator of the LL.M. programme ‘European Criminal Justice in a Global Context’.

Before joining Utrecht University, Domenico was a research and teaching associate in criminal law at the University of Innsbruck (2018-2023). Prior to that, he worked at the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, at the Representation of the European Region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol-Tirol in Brussels, at national courts and as a freelance journalist. Since 2013 he has been a member of the Italian Chamber of Journalists. He studied law at the Universities of Innsbruck (Austria) and Rotterdam.

Domenico is a fellow of the European Law Institute  and of the Accademia di studi italo-tedeschi/Akademie deutsch-italienischer Studien, as well as a member of the International Association of Penal Law/Association Internationale de Droit Pénal. He carried out research stays as a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (2021), the European University Institute (2020) and the Unicef Centre of Research - Innocenti (2020).

Domenico’s research has repeatedly been recognised by prizes and substantial grants. In 2024, together with Dr. Aart de Vries, he was awarded a Starting Grant by the Utrecht Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance (240.000 €). In 2023 he received the Franz-Gschnitzer-Preis conferred by Innsbruck’s Faculty of Law for the best doctoral dissertations, while in 2020 he won the Best Paper Award of the University of Innsbruck. Already in 2019, he was a principal author of a successful application to the ST Research Fund with a project on criminal responsibility and risk management in the mountains (300.000 €, project leader: Prof. Margareth Helfer).

Most recently, he received the Futura Career Award, which is biannualy granted to Tyroleans who have made exceptional contributions to the fields of economy, science, or culture.

As of 2025, he is supervising, together with Dr. Aart de Vries and Prof. Michiel Luchtman, a PhD candidate (Thirza Leinenga) working on the concept of ‘minimum rule’ in European criminal law.

Domenico is fluent in English, Italian and German, while his Dutch is gradually improving.