I build the law that doesn’t exist yet
Rules decide whole parts of our lives, yet almost nobody can understand them. My work is to change that: measure how well law is understood, and build the tools that make it clear.
I teach at Bologna Business School, write, speak and build. This site is the log of what I do. Much is in progress. Some of it is wrong. Write to me.
Forbes Italia · 2021Top 100 Italian LawyersAmong the hundred Italian lawyers selected by Forbes Italia.See the article →TEDxLivorno · 2019Ethics and roboticsMy TEDx talk: an ethical supply chain resolves the conflict between law and technology.Watch the talk →
Legalcommunity Awards · 2021Professional of the Year, Legal DesignThe award for my legal design work.See the article →We sign everything. We understand almost nothing
Law presumes that whoever accepts has understood. The data says otherwise.
Obar & Oeldorf-Hirsch, “The Biggest Lie on the Internet” (study of 543 people)
open the licence agreement before accepting it (nearly 50,000 users observed)
Bakos, Marotta-Wurgler, Trossen ↗of work to read every privacy policy we meet in a year
McDonald & Cranor, 2008 ↗miss a clause asking for their first-born child in exchange for the service
Obar & Oeldorf-Hirsch ↗After the body and data, the mind
For centuries law protected the human body. Then human data. The next step will be protecting human intelligence.
- 1679Habeas corpusThe body. No one may be held without a judge seeing them.
- 2016Habeas dataData. Information about us has rules, limits and rights.
- TodayHabeas mentemThe mind. The conditions in which we understand, judge and decide.
Habeas Mentem: the right to understand, judge and decide in conditions not designed against us.
The book and its ten-article Charter →Understanding can be measured. Then designed
One hundred people read the documents used to consent to brain-computer interfaces, wearing EEG and fNIRS. Not one document was below the accessibility threshold.
Exploratory study, voluntary non-representative sample. The 45/100 threshold is experimental, not legal. M. Giacomello, “Designing the understanding of law”, in Mente e Tecnologia, Springer Healthcare Italia, 2026.
“Designing a neural-data notice that a non-specialist cannot understand is a way of taking what was not given.”
From here, three tools
È CHIARO?
BetaSnap a contract and understand costs, penalties and rights in seconds. A clarity score from 0 to 100.
Neuro Legal Cortex
ResearchThe lab measuring how the brain reads a contract: timing, gaze, fNIRS, EEG.
Il mondo delle domande
Coming soonTen comic stories for ages 7–10: legalese becomes characters to unmask.
In progress. Done. Wrong
Mistakes stay written. They are the most useful part.
- 2026MensHabeas Mentem, the manuscript18 chapters. Closing the last one: the ten-article Charter.In progress
- 2026OpusFirst LX Complexity Score study100 readers, EEG and fNIRS. No BCI document analysed was below the accessibility threshold.Done
- 2026Mens“One sensor is enough”No. No single sensor proves understanding. Hence the convergence rule.Wrong
- 2026OpusÈ CHIARO?, from beta to waitlistTwo sides: reader and drafter. It changes the structure, not the law.In progress
If a rule can’t be understood, it’s a design problem
I work with companies, institutions and legal teams that want documents people understand and products that hold up to the rules. I speak, teach, measure, build.
Every week, the same idea in four formats
Two ideas a week, straight to your inbox
- Notes on law, mind and technology
- Open challenges, before they hit the site
- Early access to new products