Dear Colleagues,

On May 8^th, 2023, we will celebrate the 15^th Anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This Convention was a remarkable milestone, which deeply changed the approach of society and Law regarding people with disabilities. However, the implementation of the Convention in national legal systems is progressing slowly and faces considerable difficulties. In many countries, people with disabilities are still deprived of their human rights (right to vote, right to legal capacity, right to inclusive education, among others) or do not have the necessary support to overcome the barriers which hinder their full participation in society. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has particularly affected people with disabilities, who in many cases have even been denied appropriate sanitary assistance.

This Special Issue aims to provide the scientific knowledge necessary to improve the implementation of the UN Convention and to help people with disabilities to face the new challenges of an increasing digital world. Among other goals, Laws intends to bridge traditional boundaries and challenge the injustices inherent in the law, and this Special Issue will contribute to these ends.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to):

• The right to legal capacity;
• Accessibility;
• The right to health of people with disabilities: lessons from the pandemic;
• Legal instruments to improve labor inclusion of persons with disabilities;
• The right to inclusive education;
• Political participation of people with disabilities;
• Persons with disabilities and digitalization.

We seek contributions that will help legal systems and public policies better protect the rights of persons with disabilities. Therefore, critical reviews of legal reforms that have been undertaken in recent years, as well as studies which propose new legal reforms or identify new potential threats for the rights of people with disabilities and suggest legal instruments and public policies to overcome these issues, are especially welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Prof. Dr. Antonio Luis Martínez Pujalte
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Laws is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• persons with disabilities
• right to legal capacity
• accessibility
• disability law
• disability policies
• inclusive education
• political participation
• digitalization
• labor inclusion