Dr Costantino Grasso

Dr. Costantino Grasso (LL.B., Pg.D., LL.M., Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor in Law and his areas of expertise include transnational criminal law, corporate and economic crime, business organization, governance, and ethics, as well as corporate social responsibility. 

He has served as a consultant, advisor, and lecturer on topics related to those matters for the European Union and Council of Europe as well as national governments, academic institutions and firms in Europe and North America. Dr Costantino Grasso is the editor-in-chief of the Corporate Crime Observatory and the Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics Blog. He is also a member of the Law and Society Association (USA) and the Society of Legal Scholars (UK).

As an active member of research communities at both the domestic and international level, he has developed an extensive research network, which includes top American and European academic institutions like New York University, Boston College, Berkeley, Collège de France, Norwegian School of Economics, Copenhagen Business School, University Carlos III of Madrid, and LUISS Guido Carli.

He is the Co-founder and Co-organizer of the Law and Society’s Collaborative Research Network “Economic Crime and Corporate Compliance” (CRN41), a pioneering interdisciplinary forum within the Law and Society Association that brings together leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world to explore the complexities of corporate misconduct, financial crime, and regulatory enforcement. Through this network, he has played a key role in fostering critical discussions, advancing innovative research agendas, and promoting collaborative initiatives that address the evolving challenges posed by economic crime in both domestic and transnational contexts.

In addition to his academic and research leadership roles, Dr. Grasso’s expertise in the area of corporate and economic crime is further recognized through several appointments. He was named an Advisory Board Member of the Association of Corporate Investigators in 2023, an Advisory Board Member of Violation Tracker UK in 2022, and an international anti-corruption expert by Transparency International in 2019.

Being qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and as a lawyer in Italy, he has always combined academic activities with legal practice. In 2014, he worked as a corporate governance and compliance specialist for the Serious Fraud Office participating in the first-ever U.K. Deferred Prosecution Agreement between that prosecuting body and ICBC Standard Bank Plc, which concerned a complex case of transnational bribery. On that occasion, he received an award for the substantial input into the success of the agreement and, on 23 November 2016, he was awarded as a member of the case team the UK Government Legal Department's Prosecutor of the Year Award. Although he did not accept the role due to the impracticality of serving judicial functions abroad, on 19 July 2017 he was appointed by the Italian Ministry of Justice as an honorary judge at the Court of Turin.

As of June 2018, he has been appointed as an international expert in the area of corruption and good governance by the Council of Europe - Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law - Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (Tender 2017/AO/51). In this capacity, he has already participated in several international missions liaising with judges, prosecutors, investigators and government representatives of various countries (e.g., Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Montenegro).

In recognition of his work in the area of financial crime, the European Commission’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) granted him external funding for the 2-year (April 2020 – June 2022) project VIRTEU, which was an innovative and high-profile legal research project including both an interdisciplinary and a comparative approach, and is aimed at exploring the interconnections between tax crimes and corruption.

In 2021, he also served as the Principal Investigator of “Whistling at the Fake: The Crucial Role of Whistleblowers in Countering Disinformation,” which was a six-month international research project funded by NATO's Public Diplomacy Division that aimed at addressing the gap of citizen comprehension of the forms, means, and impacts of misinformation and disinformation, and exploring the role and effectiveness of whistleblowers and knowledgeable insiders as a means of exposing hostile information activities and increasing public resilience to acts of this nature.

Previously, Dr. Grasso has held several academic and professional positions across leading institutions in the UK and internationally. At Manchester Law School (2021–2025), he served as an Associate Professor in Business and Law and as an Associate at the Research Centre for Business Transformation, where he taught courses such as Criminal Law, Corporations and Business Organization, Corporate and Economic Crime, Global Corporations and Society, and Corporate Social Responsibility. In addition, he coordinated postgraduate dissertations and research projects, directed doctoral studies, chaired various academic panels, and acted as a formal mentor for junior colleagues. His prior appointments include a Visiting Researcher role at Boston College Law School (2023), where he researched economic crime and tax abuses while delivering guest lectures and co-organizing international academic events. Dr. Grasso has also contributed significantly at the University of London by designing and leading courses on Corporate Governance and Ethics for the Global Online MBA programs (2016–2021), and at Coventry Law School (2018–2021) as an Assistant Professor of Law and Associate at the Research Center for Financial and Corporate Integrity. Earlier in his career, he served with the Serious Fraud Office in London (2014–2015) as a Higher Executive Officer in the Corporate Bribery and Corruption Division, where he played a pivotal role in reviewing anti-bribery and corruption compliance systems of multinational enterprises and financial institutions. Notably, he participated in the first-ever Deferred Prosecution Agreement negotiations in England and Wales, contributing to the development of corporate governance and compliance measures that were integral to the agreement. For his efforts, he was recognized as a member of the case team with the UK Government Legal Department's Prosecutor of the Year Award in 2016, an accolade presented by the Solicitor General for England and Wales. His earlier roles also include research and teaching positions at Queen Mary, University of London.

Dr. Grasso’s earned his LL.M. in Commercial and Corporate Law from Queen Mary, University of London (2014), achieving a distinction for his dissertation titled “Fighting Corruption and Fraud in the World Bank-Financed Projects.” He completed his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice and Transnational Criminal Law at the University of Naples, School of Law (2013), with his thesis “English Sentencing Guidelines as an Inspirational Model for Continental Europe.” His foundational legal training includes a postgraduate specialization in Criminal and Administrative Law (2003) and an LL.B. (Hons) (2000) from the University of Naples, School of Law.