—Susan Sterett, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Center for Public Administration and Policy Sitting in a field in the English countryside last July by a campfire, my London friends and I talked about Brexit and what it might mean for their friends and their work. Would their European friends who lived in England have to

What’s New in Public Law
–Patrick Yingling, Reed Smith LLP In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in public law. “Developments” may include a selection of links to news, high court decisions, new or recent scholarly books and articles, and blog posts from around the public law blogosphere. To submit relevant developments for our weekly

Legal Limits on Beijing’s Powers of Interpretation?
[Cross-posted from HKU Legal Scholarship Blog. The original post, published on November, 3, 2016, appears here.] –Cora Chan, Hong Kong University There are speculations that Beijing’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) will issue an interpretation of Hong Kong’s Basic Law to bar two legislators-elect in Hong Kong from taking office. This piece expounds the

The Crisis of Judicial Independence in Hong Kong
—Wilson Yuen, MA (University of Chicago, ’16), JD (The University of Hong Kong, ’12), BA (University of California, Los Angeles ’10) In the 2016 Legislative Council (LegCo) General Election, Youngspiration, one of the political parties founded after the 2014 “umbrella revolution,” managed to send Mr. Sixtus Leung Chung Hang and Miss Yau Wai Ching to

Developments in Swedish Constitutional Law: The Year 2015 in Review
[Editor’s Note: This is the fifth installment in our Year-in-Review series. We welcome similar reports from scholars around the world on their own jurisdictions for publication on I-CONnect. Earlier year-in-review reports have been published on Italy, the Slovak Republic, Romania and Belgium. As we have done in the past, we reiterate our sincere thanks to our contributors for how much they have contributed

What’s New in Public Law
–Sandeep Suresh, LL.M in Comparative Constitutional Law (Central European University, Budapest) In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in public law. “Developments” may include a selection of links to news, high court decisions, new or recent scholarly books and articles, and blog posts from around the public law blogosphere. To

Virtual Bookshelf: Judicial Review in Kenya: A Review of “The Contested Empowerment of Kenya’s Judiciary, 2010-2015: A Historical Institutional Analysis,” by James Thuo Gathii
—Richard Albert, Boston College Law School We know a lot about the theory of judicial review. We also know a lot about how the power of judicial review is exercised and why it has emerged in many constitutional democracies around the world. For example, Tom Ginsburg has theorized what he calls the insurance model of judicial review in

Preservationist Constitutional Amendments and the Rise of Antipolitics in Brazil
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília Ran Hirschl, in his book Towards Juristocracy, raises a very thorough argument on how political, economic, and judicial elites have strategically used Supreme Courts as “a form of self-interested hegemonic preservation.”[1] As a way of keeping many of their interests virtually untouched for years, especially in democratic and pluralistic

What’s New in Public Law
[Editor’s Note: We are pleased to announce the birth of Evan Yingling, son of Stephanie and Patrick Yingling, last week on Tuesday, October 18. Patrick has been an integral part of the What’s New in Public Law team since the very first edition was published almost three years ago. Please join Tom Ginsburg, David Landau and me

The Roles of Supreme Courts and Constitutional Courts in Contemporary Democracies
[Editor’s Note: In this special post, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Luís Roberto Barroso shares his notes from an address given to students at the Yale Law School on September 22, 2016. We are grateful to Justice Barroso for this contribution to I-CONnect. –Richard Albert] —Luís Roberto Barroso, Justice, Supreme Court of Brazil; Professor of Law, Rio de