Rafael Cimatti Elias

Rafael Cimatti Elias is a Researcher at the Centre for European Private Law (ZEP) at the University of Graz and at the Institute for European Tort Law (ETL). He is also a PhD Candidate at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, where he is working on a doctoral thesis on the justifications for strict liability in French law. At Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, he has also taught courses in Law of Obligations, Special Contracts, and Introduction to Law and Civil Law (2023–2025).

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Law (2018) and a Master's degree (“mestrado”) in Civil Law (2022) from the University of São Paulo's Faculty of Law (FDUSP). During his studies at the FDUSP, he worked as a teaching assistant for the courses Roman Law I and II at the Department of Civil Law (2014–2021), and as a research assistant in the preparation of the Brazilian National Report on Copyright for WIPO (2020).

His research adopts a comparative and historical approach to the law of obligations, with particular attention to the relationship between fault-based liability and strict liability and to the historical development of French civil liability. His research also addresses comparative developments in European tort law, with particular emphasis on France, Italy, Belgium and Portugal.