Last week, the Constitutional Studies Program hosted a conference on Judicial Elections in Mexico, featuring a keynote lecture by Lenia Batres, Justice of the Mexican Supreme Court. The conference was an opportunity to reflect on the major constitutional reform that has transformed judicial selection in Mexico from political appointment to popular election. (Earlier this year on June 1, 2025, Mexico held elections for federal and state judges, including all justices of the Mexican Supreme Court.)

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I am proud of my student Debanhi Figueroa. She gave an outstanding introduction of Justice Batres, and then moderated the Q&A with members of the audience. The event was co-sponsored by the Latin America Initiative, the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, and the Programa Universitario de Estudios sobre Democracia, Justicia y Sociedad de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. A few photos follow below.

Pakistan has a new Federal Constitutional Court, the result of a constitutional reform enacted last month. The new Constitutional Court has exclusive jurisdiction on matters of constitutional interpretation. It also has the authority to issue advisory opinions at the request of the President. The inaugural Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court is Aminuddin Khan.

We are now planning the 6th annual edition of the International Review of Constitutional Reform, a book we have published since 2020. The IRCR compiles brief chapters on constitutional reform efforts over the past year in countries all around the world. We welcome expressions of interest to write a chapter for the next edition. We give priority to teams that include women and early-career scholars. Prior editions are available here: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020. The book is co-edited by Professor and Chief Justice (retired) Luís Roberto Barroso and me, and we work closely with Elisa Boaventura, Maria Borges, Bruno Cunha, Matheus Depieri, Júlia Frade, and David Sobreira.

The Chief Justice of England and Wales, Sue Carr, recently delivered a lecture at the University of Oxford to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Constitutional Reform Act, which established the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The full text of the Chief Justice's remarks is available here, and the full lecture can be viewed below.

Thank you to our contributors, listed below. And thank you to our partners, including the Constitutional Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin, the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism, and I-CONnect: The Blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law. Thanks also to my co-editors David Landau, Pietro Faraguna, and Giulia Andrade, and our Associate Editors Paula da Costa Ricardo Schier and Pruthvirajsinh Zala.

The 2025 Herbert W. Vaughan Memorial Lecture at the Harvard Law School was delivered by Richard Ekins. His lecture, titled Questioning the Dogmas of Textualism, argues for a more flexible form of textualism that incorporates legislative intent into the task of interpreting and applying statutes. The full recording of the lecture appears below.

Registration is now open for the 3rd edition of our week-long seminar, organized with the UEES Graduate School of Law, led by Pablo Alarcón Peña. Faculty, students, and all interested persons are welcome to register. Join us! 

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This edition will feature 12 faculty lecturers, all pictured below. We will also enjoy excursions to the Supreme Court of Texas, the Texas State Capitol, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.  And we will (of course) enjoy Texas BBQ on more than one occasion. All are welcome! 

I recently visited the University of California, Berkeley. The University was founded in 1868 with a mission to “contribute even more than California’s gold to the glory and happiness of advancing generations.” The University ranks as the best public university in the United States. 

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On my campus tour, I noticed that some parking spots are marked with the designation *NL Reserved*. I asked why. The answer reveals a lot about excellence at the University: those parking spots are reserved for faculty members who are Nobel Laureates. There have been 63 in Berkeley's history! Here are a few photos from my time on campus.