Paola Passarelli

Paola Passarelli, born in Naples, graduated with honours in law from the Federico II University of Naples. She specialised in civil law and obtained a doctorate in canonical law before practicing as a lawyer. She has been registered as a labour arbitrator with the Arbitration Chamber of Campania since 2005 and is a prosecutor at the Roman Rota (the highest appeals court for all judicial trials in the Catholic Church) since July 2006.​​

Since December 2017, she has been the Director General of the General Directorate of Libraries and Copyright at the Italian Ministry of Culture. She oversees intellectual property and copyright issues, state public libraries and national bibliographic and library services, the protection and enhancement of the book collection and the promotion of books and reading. She also supervises and provides advice to the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE).