HSG - Uni SG - Chair Schmid

Welcome to the Chair of Public Law
with special emphasis on Constitutional Law
of Prof. Dr. Stefan G. Schmid

Chair of Public Law with special emphasis on Constitutional Law (FR-HSG)
Tigerbergstrasse 21
CH-9000 St.Gallen

lehrstuhl.schmid@unisg.ch

Prof. Dr. Stefan G. Schmidexpand_less

Full Professor of Public Law with special emphasis on Constitutional Law

Stefan G. Schmid completed his law degree at the University of Zurich (lic. iur. 1998) where he also worked as a research assistant and subsequently gained his doctorate (Dr. iur. 2003). After leaving the university he earned ample practical experience in legislation and judiciary, both on the cantonal and the federal level, most recently with the Public Law Division of the Federal Office of Justice. From 2008 to 2014, he served as an assistant professor of constitutional history at the Institute of Public Law at the University of Bern. He spent the autumn semester of 2010 as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. In 2017 he qualified as a professor of public law, constitutional history and political philosophy at the University of Zurich. On 1st February 2019 he became a full professor of public law with special emphasis on constitutional law at the University of St. Gallen. He is co-director of the Centre for the History of public law and academic director of the PhD program in Law (DLS) at the University of St. Gallen. Prof. Schmid’s main areas of research are state organisation law (including federalism and democracy) in the light of foreign public law as well as recent constitutional history and political philosophy.

Personal profile

News

Yes, maybe or rather no? The question of whether the outcome of the current treaty negotiations between Switzerland and the European Union will one day be subject to a mandatory referendum, requiring a double majority of the people and the cantons, is highly disputed. In his latest study in the Schweizerische Zentralblatt für Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht, Stefan G. Schmid examines in detail the question of an "unwritten" mandatory referendum on international treaties. He critically analyses the supposed precedents (accession to the League of Nations in 1920, agreement with the European Communities in 1972, agreement on the European Economic Area in 1992), considers more recent opinions as well as various contradictions in doctrine and practice, and presents possible legal bases for an "unwritten" mandatory referendum on international treaties.

What do the European Court of Human Rights judgment in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and others v. Switzerland, violations of international law in Iran and the European Women's Football Championship 2025 have in common? In an article in the Aktuelle Juristische Praxis, Luca Müller, BLaw, Assistant to the Chair, and Stefan G. Schmid look at the previously scarcely researched parliamentary "declaration" from a historical, legal and political perspective at federal and cantonal level.

Teaching

course catalogue

Information for Bachelor’s and Master’s Theses

Please contact the chair via email with your topic suggestion or topic preference. After Prof. Schmid agrees to supervise your thesis and approves your topic, you will elaborate a research proposal, which shall serve as a basis for a first meeting. The search for a co-supervisor for the Master's thesis takes place in consultation with Prof. Schmid.

Details of the requirements can be found in the Implementation Provisions Academic Programmes and the Merkblatt Juristische Bachelor-Arbeiten or the Merkblatt Juristische Master-Arbeiten. The content of your research proposal should follow the structure taught in the Bachelor's course “Methoden und Arbeitstechnik”. Accordingly, your research proposal shall include