Stefano Rodotà (30 May 1933 – 23 June 2017) was an Italian jurist and politician.

Born in 1933 in Cosenza, to a middle-class family of San Benedetto Ullano, he attended Liceo classico Bernardino Telesio in his hometown and later the Sapienza University of Rome, where he graduated in 1955 under professor Emilio Betti, an Italian jurist, Roman Law scholar, philosopher and theologian, best known for his contributions to hermeneutics.

He was the brother of the engineer Antonio Rodotà and father of journalist Maria Laura Rodotà, a columnist for the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Rodotà was accepted to Sapienza University of Rome's law school, where he graduated in 1955.

He then became Professor of Civil Law at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he was conferred the title of Emeritus.

As well as giving lectures and seminars at several universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, Latin America, and India, he was a visiting scholar at All Souls College in Oxford and Stanford Law School on a Fulbright grant. He later became a professor at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University Faculty of Law and collaborated with the Collège de France. Subsequently he was granted honorary degree by the Michel de Montaigne University Bordeaux 3 and the University of Macerata.

Rodotà was the Chairman of the Administrative Council of the International University College of Turin and also a committee member of the NEXA Center for Internet and Society^[1] a research center founded at the Department of Control and Computer Engineering of Polytechnic University of Turin.

He joined the Radical Party led by Mario Pannunzio. In 1976 and in 1979 he refused to be a candidate for the Radical Party, then led by Marco Pannella. Instead, he was elected to the Parliament for the Independent Left, affiliated to the Italian Communist Party (PCI) becoming member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. He was re-elected in 1983 and elected as the president of the parliamentary group of the Independent Left.

He was selected as a Member of Parliament for the third time in 1987 and became a part of the first Bicameral Committee on institutional reform. In 1989 he became Shadow Minister of Justice in the Shadow Cabinet created by the Italian Communist Party led by Achille Occhetto. He joined Occhetto's Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) when it was formed and was proposed as their first presidential candidate.

In April 1992 he returned to Parliament for the fourth time, was elected as Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies and re-confirmed as a member of the new Bicameral Commission for institutional reforms. In May 1992 he stood in for Oscar Luigi Scalfaro as Speaker of the House during the last session of Parliament when it convened for the election of the Head of State, as Scalfaro was himself a candidate for the Quirinal Palace. At the end of the term in 1994, lasting only two years, Rodotà decided not to run again, preferring to return to university.

Stefano Rodotà taught at the Universities of Macerata, Genoa and Rome, where he was professor of civil law and where he was awarded with the title of professor emeritus. He taught in many universities in Europe, in the United States of America, in Latin America, Canada, Australia and India. He was a visiting professor at the All Souls College in Oxford and Stanford School of Law. He taught at the Faculty of Law of the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and worked with the Collège de France. He received an honorary degree from Michel de Montaigne University of Bordeaux and the University of Macerata. He was chairman of the board of directors of the International University College of Turin. He was part of the Committee of the guarantors of the Democracy Biennial and the Nexa Center for Internet and Society of Politecnico di Torino.

Rodotà wrote many books and articles, which were translated into English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

• Il problema della responsabilità civile, Milano, Giuffrè, 1961; 1964.
• Le fonti di integrazione del contratto, Milano, Giuffrè, 1964; 1965; 1969.
• Il diritto privato nella società moderna, a cura di, Bologna, il Mulino, 1971; 1977.
• Elaboratori elettronici e controllo sociale, Bologna, il Mulino, 1973.
• Il controllo sociale delle attività private, a cura di, Bologna, il Mulino, 1977.
• Alla ricerca delle libertà, Bologna, il Mulino, 1978.
• Il terribile diritto. Studi sulla proprietà privata, Bologna, il Mulino, 1981; 1990. ISBN 88-15-02858-7.
• Repertorio di fine secolo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1992. ISBN 88-420-3913-6; 1999. ISBN 88-420-5859-9.
• Questioni di bioetica, a cura di, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1993. ISBN 88-420-4304-4.
• Quale stato, Siena, Sisifo, 1994.
• Tecnologie e diritti, Bologna, il Mulino, 1995. ISBN 88-15-04855-3.
• Libertà e diritti in Italia. Dall'Unità ai giorni nostri, Roma, Donzelli, 1997. ISBN 88-7989-371-8.
• Tecnopolitica. La democrazia e le nuove tecnologie dell'informazione, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1997. ISBN 88-420-5287-6; 2004. ISBN 88-420-7271-0.
• Intervista su privacy e libertà, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005. ISBN 88-420-7641-4.
• La vita e le regole. Tra diritto e non diritto, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2006. ISBN 88-07-10392-3; 2009. ISBN 978-88-07-72146-5.
• Ideologie e tecniche della riforma del diritto civile, Napoli, Editoriale scientifica, 2007. ISBN 978-88-95152-31-8.
• Dal soggetto alla persona, Napoli, Editoriale scientifica, 2007. ISBN 978-88-95152-54-7.
• Perché laico, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009. ISBN 978-88-420-8678-9; 2010. ISBN 978-88-420-9333-6.
• Che cos'è il corpo?, con CD, Roma, Sossella, 2010. ISBN 978-88-89829-63-9.
• Il nuovo habeas corpus: la persona costituzionalizzata e la sua autodeterminazione, in Trattato di biodiritto, I, Ambito e fonti del biodiritto, Milano, Giuffrè, 2010. ISBN 88-14-15909-2.
• Il corpo "giuridificato", in Trattato di biodiritto, Il governo del corpo, Milano, Giuffrè, 2011. ISBN 88-14-15902-5.
• Diritti e libertà nella storia d'Italia. Conquiste e conflitti 1861-2011, Roma, Donzelli, 2011. ISBN 978-88-6036-584-2.
• Elogio del moralismo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2011. ISBN 978-88-420-9889-8.
• Il diritto di avere diritti, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012. ISBN 978-88-420-9608-5.
• (presentation of) Democrazia senza partiti, Roma, Edizioni di Comunità, 2013 ISBN 978-88-98220-01-4.
• La rivoluzione della dignità, Napoli, La scuola di Pitagora, 2013. ISBN 978-88-6542-008-9.
• Il mondo nella rete. Quali i diritti, quali i vincoli., Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2014. ISBN 978-88-581-1165-9.
• Solidarietà. Un'utopia necessaria., Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2014. ISBN 978-88-581-1472-8.
• Diritto e giustizia: interroghiamo la Costituzione, introduzione di Franco Roberti, La scuola di Pitagora, 2015, ISBN 978-88-6542-433-9.
• Vivere la democrazia, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2018. ISBN 978-88-581-3137-4.