A collectively authored article, which (unusually in legal scholarship) makes explicit the processes and methodologies by which 'European Union health law' is conceptualised; the implications; and the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken. Strengths include implied structural and systemic coherence; and the breadth of analysis that having a large team of authors permits, through holding their positionalities in creative interplay with each other. The authors argue that European Union health law - defined as transversal and distinctively European Union law that either directly or indirectly affects human health, in a broad sense - should be understood through a metaphor of growth and connectedness, specifically a 'tree'. The article seeks to initiate a discussion not only about European Union health law, but also about European law and health law.

Could the emergence of a surrogacy market in France, despite its prohibition by the French Civil Code, be the tip of a social iceberg? This article aims to analyse the individualization of Law and society. Through innovative legal constructs, the possessors of rights provided by national Law are demanding changes to the law to suit their individual interests. By anchoring their desire in an existing subjective right, legal subjects situate the fulfillment of this desire within the legal domain, while raising the question of its normative dimension. Beyond traditional questions of legal agility, optimization and discursive dimension of the use of available rights, the consequences are crucial: because individualization is growing, the law is no longer a collective and social phenomenon, but a tool that the judge adjusts according to the desired result. What is at stake here is the meaning of Law, Justice and, ultimately, society itself.

The legal recognition of veganism highlights the evolving landscape of dietary choices and their status under human rights law. This paper examines the legal status of vegan diets under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), focusing on public institutions such as prisons and hospitals. By analyzing the first relevant cases before the European Court of Human Rights, it explores the protection of vegan diets under Articles 9 (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the ECHR. The paper also considers whether access to a vegan diet relates to identity, autonomy, and health through Article 8 (respect for private life) and discusses the connection between veganism, environmental sustainability, and the emerging right to a healthy environment. It offers a critical analysis of States' legal obligations regarding the provision of vegan diets in public settings.

This contribution explores the implications of the EU legal framework for the use of AI in health care, with a focus on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. The AI Act, currently the most specific legal AI document, is not tailored to health care and the provisions that focus on the deployer (in this case the physician) lack specificity. Ultimately, we identify five elements for responsible AI usage in medical decision-making that, in our view, should be included in practical guidance, established by the medical profession.

Modern ethics and law understand the human embryo as a value deserving special protection. This protection is ensured by legal systems and until recently was based on a generally accepted understanding of what we mean by 'embryo'. With the technological innovations of the last decades, this perception has begun to be challenged, as new embryonic entities have been artificially created. These entities are not derived from a gamete union and may develop in a biologically similar way to the natural embryo, at least in their early stages. To what extent should these new biological forms be protected, given their similarities and differences with the latter? This article argues that from an ethical and legal point of view, the sole criterion justifying the protection of the human embryo is its potential to fully develop into a complete organism. It is on the basis of this criterion that we should assess the protection of 'synthetic' embryonic entities and proceed to adopt specific regulations for their treatment, particularly in research.

According to Italian Law on informed consent and advance directives claims regarding parents' refusal of treatment in favor of a child must be referred to Protection Courts. This paper described some recent decree by District Appeal Courts called to settle the conflict of jurisdiction between Family Courts and Protection Courts in claims regarding the refusal of medical treatment in favor of minors. The decrees by the Court of Appeal confirmed that Protection Courts are entitled to manage claims regarding refusal of medical treatment by parents except when elements of neglect or maltreatment rise. They also established that the refusal of a medical treatment is not sufficient to override parental responsibility when there are no proofs of neglect. The new Italian law marks a difference between the Italian jurisdiction and the ones of other European countries and significantly limited the cases when overriding parents' responsibility is legal.

These summaries are based on the provisional text of the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights. These judgments are still subject to editorial revision before their reproduction in Reports of Judgments and Decisions. For the full provisional text, see: http://www.echr.coe.int.