MrJose-Miguel Bello Villarino

Lic. Law, Lic. Pol.Sc. (Santiago de Compostela), LL.M. (CoE, Brugge), LL.M. (NYU), M.A. Int’l.Rel. (Diplom. Sch. Madrid), Ph.D. Law (Sydney)

José-Miguel [pronunciation here] BELLO y VILLARINO [joint surname] is a Senior Research Fellow at the Law School and an Australian Research Council Early Career Industry Fellow 2025-2027,affiliated with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) and The University of Sydney Centre for AI, trust and governance. At the University of Sydney he is the Director of Research Engagement for the Law School and co-teaches the advanced course of Law and Technology (LAWS5218) and an interdisciplinary course for Dalyell Scholars at the Faculty of Engineering (ENGD3004). He is also a member of the Diplomatic Corps of Spain (on leave) and previously worked in different capacities for the European Union. His ARC fellowship, in partnership with the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, aims to provide a governance framework for the use of AI and automation for anticorruption purposes in the public sector, especially targeting systemic corruption. He has been a visiting researcher at the European University Institute School of Transnational Governance (2024), the University of Santiago de Compostela Faculty of Law (2024) and Harvard Law School (Fulbright-Schuman scholar 2021).

His current research focuses on regulatory approaches to ADM and Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially on how to deal with risks derived from the operation of AI systems from a comparative approach and the interoperability of these regulations. More narrowly, he is especially interested in the governance of the use of automation in the public sector and in education. His work on AI regulation and on anticorruption has received the Rita and John Cornforth Medal for Research Excellence at the University of Sydney, for outstanding achievement in research (2023) and the Scotiabank Global AI + Regulation Emerging Scholar Award (joint award, 2022). 

His broader academic work covers many areas of international law and legal theory, dealing mainly with finding feasible solutions to current or anticipated legal problems. He often approaches these questions favoring interdisciplinary lenses, understanding the law as a continuum between the public and private spheres. He is especially interested in problems based on his experience in the international arena, often identifying issues that could be better addressed with alternative regulatory approaches. Recent publications cover issues as diverse as corruption and SDGs, human rights and artificial intelligence, women in anticorruption treaties, standardisation of AI, golden passports, international trade agreements, economic analysis of human rights, investor-state disputes, corruption-related data, regulatory competition, space research and gender and the law.

In 2025-2026 he co-chairs the International Economic Law Interest Group of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law ("ANZSIL"). He has previously worked for the Commission and the Council of the EU and served in diplomatic postings in Eastern Europe, West Africa, South-East Asia and Central America and at the HQs in Madrid. His last position before moving to Sydney was Deputy Head of Mission in Islamabad.