Nausica Palazzo

Assistant Professor

nausica.palazzo@novalaw.unl.pt
Biographical Note | Pedagogical Experience | Main Publications | Research Areas

Nausica Palazzo is an Assistant Professor in Constitutional Law at NOVA School of Law in Lisbon, who works in the area of family law, constitutional law, and sexual politics. She graduated in law from Bocconi University in 2014, earned an LL.M. from the University of Michigan School of Law, and a cum laude Ph.D. in Comparative Law from the University of Trento with a dissertation on the legal recognition of non-traditional families in Canada, the US, and Europe. For the completion of her dissertation, she received six fellowships and grants, including a Fulbright Fellowship.

Prior to joining Nova, Nausica was an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Law at Bocconi University, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She held visiting positions at the European University Institute, and McGill University.

Nausica is especially interested in queer approaches to family law, critical approaches to anti-discrimination law and theory, comparative constitutional law, and the relationship between gender and religious norms in illiberal regimes. Nausica has published articles in these areas in top specialized journals such as the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, and Oñati Socio-Legal Series.

Her latest book Legal Recognition of Non-Conjugal Families came out in February 2021 with Hart Publishing and a forthcoming co-edited collection on queer/religious alliances in family law will be published by Anthem Press in 2022.

Bachelor’s degree (1^st cycle) 

• Family law (Comparative Family Law)
• Freedom, Justice, and Security – Special EU Law

Monograph

• Legal Recognition of Non-Conjugal Families: New Frontiers in Family Law in the US, Canada and Europe, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2021.

Editorship

• Themed Section: Meet the Queer Family: A roadmap towards legal recognition. In: A Transdisciplinary Journal of Queer Theories and Studies, Vol. 4, 2021.
• Edited Volume: Queer/Religious Alliances in Family Law Politics and Beyond (co-editor J.A. Redding). Anthem Press, New York, forthcoming

Journal Articles

• Marriage Apostates: Why Heterosexuals Seek Same-Sex Registered Partnerships. In: Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, Vol. 42, No. 1, forthcoming
• Finding a Place for “Public Family Law” in Comparative Law. In: Ius Comparatum, forthcoming
• Judicial Activism’ in Europe: Not a Neat and Clean Fit. In: Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law, 14, No. 4, 2021, 399-422.
• Terre di mezzo e mine vaganti: Una lettura post-strutturalista del riconoscimento giuridico del genere della persona trans [In-between spaces and loose cannons: A post-structuralist account of trans persons’ gender legal recognition]. In: GenIUS, No. 1, 2021
• Equality in Canada: A Tale of Non-Normative Groups Struggling with Grounds for Discrimination. In: Oñati Socio-Legal Series. Vol. 10., No. 1, 2020, 88-122.
• The Strange Pairing: Building Alliances Between Queer Activists and Conservative Groups to Recognize New Families. In: Michigan Journal of Gender & Law. Vol. 25. No. 2, 2018, 162-237.
• Who Fears the Big Government? A Coordinated Attempt to Downsize Federal Agencies’ Power in the United States (co-author G. Romeo). In: Global Jurist. Vol. 18. No. 2, 2019, 1-12.
• Bugie di carta: Un argine penale al negazionismo [Paper Lies: A Penal Shelter Against Historical Negationism]. In: Nomos, No. 2, 2017, 1-22.
• I referendum in materia di diritti delle coppie omosessuali: minoranze e vox populi [Referenda Dealing with Same-sex Couples’ Rights: Sexual Minorities and Vox Populi] (co-author M. Tomasi). In: GenIUS, No. 1, 2016, 89-103.

Book Chapters:

• Illiberalism and Gender: The Body of the Nation (co-author S. Mancini). In: A. Sajo, R. Uitz, S. Holmes (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Illiberalism, Routledge, Abingdon, 2021.
• Queer/Religious Convergences Around Non-Conjugal Couples: ‘What Could Possibly Go Wrong?’. In: N. Palazzo, J.A. Redding, Queer/Religious Alliances in Family Law Politics and Beyond (co-editor J.A. Redding). Anthem Press, New York, forthcoming 2022.
• The EU family: Is marital status emerging as a prohibited ground of discrimination? In: E. Bernard, M. Cresp, M. Ho-Dac (eds.), La famille dans l’ordre juridique de l’union européenne, Larcier/Bruylant, Bruxelles, 2020.
• Law-making power of the Italian Constitutional Court. In: M. Florczak-Wątor (ed.), Judicial Law-Making in European Constitutional Courts, Routledge, Abingdon, 2020.
• Identity politics e il suo reciproco: riflessioni giuridico-politiche sull’attivismo queer [Identity politics and its Opposite: Legal and Political Observations on Queer Activism]. In: A. Murgia, B. Poggio (eds.), Prospettive interdisciplinari su formazione, università, lavoro, politiche e movimenti sociali [An Interdisciplinary Approach to Education, University, Employment, Policies and Social Movements], Università degli Studi di Trento, Trento, 2017.

• Comparative Law
• Socio-Legal Studies
• Family Law
• Constitutional Law
• Discrimination Law and Theory
• Sexuality and the Law
• Law, Gender, and Religion
• Illiberalism Studies