I·CONnect

–Maja Sahadžić, Ph.D. Researcher (University of Antwerp)

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 feature on “What’s New in Public Law,” please email contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld a judgment that directs Google to block a company’s website from its global search results.
2. The Constitutional Court of Egypt suspended all previous court orders concerning the Red Sea Islands agreement.
3. The South African Constitutional Court struck down sections of the Immigration Act, which allowed for immigrants to be detained without a court hearing.
4. The US Supreme Court partially reinstated the president’s travel order.
5. The Turkish Constitutional Court denied hunger strikers’ demand to be released from jail and rejected the application for partial annulment of the Press Law article which regulates the obligation of publishers to publish corrections and reply texts.
6. The Constitutional Court in Romania outlined cases where convicts can become government members.
7. The Austrian Constitutional Court overturned a ban on construction of Vienna Airport’s third runway and upheld the government action to seize the apartment complex in which Hitler was born.
8. The High Court in Georgia ruled that the state cannot be sued over the Abortion Law without its consent, but that state officials can be sued as individuals to prevent them from enforcing laws alleged to violate the state Constitution.

In the News

1. The German Parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage.
2. The President of Ukraine called on Rada MPs to vote for the constitutional amendments on the abolition of parliamentary immunity.
3. The Referendum Council in Australia is set to deliver a final report suggesting the recognition of indigenous Australians in the constitution.
4. The National Assembly of Nigeria proposed a constitutional amendment to restructure judiciary.
5. The Japanese PM Shinzo Abe accelerated the agenda to amend the pacifist Constitution.
6. The Parliament of Czech Republic voted to legalize firearm ownership against the European Union gun control rules.
7. The President of Georgia opposes a new draft Constitution because it was not based on a consensus.
8. The first amendment to the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe reached a voting stage.
9. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea proposed to expand the category of basic rights from “citizens” to “people.”
10. Kenya’s opposition alliance proposed amendments to the Constitution that would provide for a hybrid executive system.
11. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was granted a leave to challenge the abortion case before the Supreme Court.
12. The Supreme Court in Venezuela was attacked. A helicopter dropped grenades on the building and fired shots at the Interior Ministry.

New Scholarship

1. Valentina Rita Scotti, On the pro-hegemonic nature of referenda for constitutional reforms in Turkey: A focus on 16 April 2017 referendum introducing presidentialism, Osservatorio Costituzionale (2017) (examining the 2017 referendum on constitutional amendments in Turkey as a pro-hegemonic device)
2. Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Anware Mnasri, and Estee Ward, Women and the Making of the Tunisian Constitution, 35 Berkeley Journal of International Law (2017) (analyzing women’s engagement in Tunisia’s constitution-making process)
3. Stéphanie De Somer, Autonomous Public Bodies and the Law, A European Perspective (2017) (discussing the impact of EU law on the autonomous public bodies and recent attempts of European states to rationalize delegation to APBs)
4. Gábor Halmai, Second-Grade Constitutionalism? The Cases of Hungary and Poland (2017) (exploring variations in the application of the EU shared values of rule of law and democracy in Hungary and Poland)
5. Alexander Tsesis, Constitutional Ethos, Liberal Equality for the Common Good (2017) (developing a unique theory of constitutional law structured on the public duty to protect individual rights for the general welfare).
6. Chintan Chandrachud, Balanced Constitutionalism Courts and Legislatures in India and the United Kingdom (2017) (comparing judicial review under the Indian Constitution and the UK Human Rights Act)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Humboldt University of Berlin organizes the international conference “The Global South in Comparative Constitutional Law,” in Berlin, on July 13-14, 2017.
2. Cornell Law School organizes the 12th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies in Ithaca on October 13-14, 2017.
3. The Asian Journal of Comparative Law welcomes submission for its 2018 issue.
4. The University of Illinois College of Law, the University of Bologna School of Law, and the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development welcome paper proposals for the Third Annual Illinois-Bologna conference on “Constitutional History: Comparative Perspectives” in Bologna, November 13-14, 2017.
5. Azores University invites submissions for the Second International Conference on Election and Democracy under the theme “Develop and Protect Humanity,” in Ponta Delgada, on October 27, 2017. The deadline for full paper submission is due by August 15, 2017.
6. Faculty of Shariah and Law of the State Islamic University invites applications for the International Conference on “Law and Justice, Good Governance and Human Rights in Muslim Countries, Experiences and Challenges,” in Jakarta, on November 7-8, 2017. The submission deadline is July 31, 2017.
7. The Government of Canada invites applications for the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships to highly motivated and competitive doctoral students. The submission deadline is November 1, 2017.
8. Melbourne Law School welcomes applications for two Ph.D. scholarships for the Australian Laureate Fellowship Program in Comparative Constitutional Law. The submission deadline is July 9, 2017.
9. The SJD Society at Emory University School of Law invites abstracts for its Annual Graduate Student Conference on “Populism and the Rule of Law,” in Atlanta, on October 12-13, 2017. The submission deadline is July 15, 2017.
10. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation invites applications for the Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers.
11. The Politics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Political Theory. The submission deadline is September 29, 2017.
12. The University of Leicester welcomes applications for a Lecturer in Law position. The submission deadline is July 5, 2017.

Elsewhere Online

1. Michael Keating, The nation-state is dead. Long live the nation-state, Academia
2. Munkhsaikhan Odonkhuu, Mongolia’s (flawed) experiment with deliberative polling in constitutional reform, ConstitutionNet
3. Gerhard van der Schyff, One year after the Brexit Referendum: More, Fewer or No Referendums in Europe?, Verfassungsblog
4. Byron Karemba, Provision of Abortion Services, the Territorial Constitution and the Supreme Court, UK Constitutional Law Association
5. Adam Liptak, A Cautious Supreme Court Sets a Modern Record for Consensus, New York Times
6. Nomfundo Ramalekana, Balancing the Scales in Eviction Cases in South Africa: A Note on Occupiers of erven 87 & 88 Berea v Christiaan Frederick De Wet, OxHRH
7. Feroze Varun Gandhi, For a more representative House, The Hindu
8. Ken Lukyamuzi, Uganda: We Should Resist Periodic Constitutional Amendments, The Monitor
9. Cathy Buckle, Who will guard the guards in Zim’s fraught Constitution, Biz News
10. Situ Aung Myint, The contentious issue of non-secession need not be an obstacle to a final agreement to emerge from the Union peace conferences, Frontier
11. Mei-Hua Chen, An incomplete equality: Taiwan moves to legalize same-sex marriage, Asia & Pacific Policy Society

—Richard Albert, Boston College Law School

As important as it is for scholars of comparative public law to read more than one language, English remains the lingua franca in the field. As a consequence, court judgments published only in the local language and not translated into English rarely enter the global dialogue among judges and scholars–or they do so by happenstance or only with great difficulty.

The now-common practice of cross-national borrowing and citation is therefore deprived of the richness of public law developments in countries whose constitutional case law remains unavailable in English.

In their new book entitled Colombian Constitutional Law: Leading Cases (Oxford University Press 2017), Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa and David Landau introduce the English-speaking world to the case law of the Colombian Constitutional Court. This is the first-ever English textbook on Colombian constitutional law–an important resource that includes translations of the most important judgments of the Constitutional Court. Their carefully crafted book invites scholars and students of public law to engage meaningfully with the history and case law of an influential but until only recently understudied court of the global south in a way that was not previously possible.

The purpose of their book is “give readers a sense of the Court’s major doctrinal contributions” so that we as scholars of comparative public law can take the Court’s experiences into consideration when we engage in our comparisons.

Part I of the book details seminal decisions in which the Court asserted and defined its role within the constitutional order. Part II acquaints readers with the Court’s jurisprudential posture on a wide range of rights controversies. Part III situates the Court within the structure of separated powers established by the Constitution. Finally, Part IV offers deep insight into the Court’s doctrinal innovations.  

What becomes evident from a close reading of Cepeda and Landau’s book is that the idea of transformative constitutionalism forms part of the DNA of Colombia’s Constitutional Court and of its Constitution.

For English speakers in search of an immersive account of constitutional developments in Colombia, and for scholars of comparative public law interested in enriching their perspective on the forms and possibilities of public law, this book is a timely and essential case study of an as-yet under-examined constitution and constitutional court.

Suggested Citation: Richard Albert, Book Review, The Transformative Constitutionalism of the Colombian Constitutional Court–A Review of “Colombian Constitutional Law” by Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa and David Landau, July 2, 2017, at: http://www.iconnectblog.com/2017/07/virtual-bookshelf-the-transformative-constitutionalism-of-the-colombian-constitutional-court-a-review-of-colombian-constitutional-law-by-manuel-jose-cepeda-espinosa-and-david-landau

—Richard Albert, Boston College Law School

In “Five Questions with … ” here at I-CONnect, we invite a public law scholar to answer five questions about his or her research.

This edition of “Five Questions with … ” features Lorenzo Casini, Full Professor of Administrative Law at IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca. He is also Secretary General of the International Society of Public (ICON-S). His full bio follows below:

Lorenzo Casini (b. 1976) is Full Professor of Administrative Law at IMT School for Advanced Studies of Lucca (Italy). After graduating in Law cum laude (1999), he obtained a Ph.D. in European and Comparative Administrative Law from the University of Rome “Sapienza” (2004). Since 2008 he has been involved in the Global Administrative Law Project at the New York University School of Law (where he has been Hauser Global Research Fellow in 2008-2009 and Hauser and Mauro Cappelletti Global Fellow in 2013). Since 2014 he has been working as legal counsel to the Italian Minister for Cultural Heritage and Tourism. From 2009 to 2014 he served as a law clerk to Justice Professor Sabino Cassese at the Constitutional Court of Italy. From 2012 to 2016 he has been Secretary general of the Institute for Research on Public Administration (IRPA). He has written several books and articles on cultural heritage, urban planning, comparative and global administrative law. He is on the board of editors of the International Journal of Constitutional Law, the Rivista trimestrale di diritto pubblico, and Aedon-Rivista di arti e diritto on line.

1. Tell us about something you are working on right now.

Since 2014 I have been working at the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism. This has allowed me to put in practice most of the issues I have been researching for years. Taking part in the first G7 meeting dedicated to culture (Florence, March 30-31, 2017) has also been a unique chance to further develop my experience in the field of law of cultural heritage. Cultural heritage is – and will always be – my main area of research and I have just published a book on that: a Cultural Heritage Law textbook, written together with four colleagues of mine, is forthcoming this Fall. At the same time, I keep working on other topics related to international, public and administrative law, such as global governance and global administrative law.

2. How and when do you write? Do you have a routine or do you write whenever and wherever you find the time?

3. Whose scholarship jumps to the top of your reading list when she or he publishes something new? 

Joseph H.H. Weiler, Richard B. Stewart, Benedict Kingsbury, Sabino Cassese, Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, to name but a few. But the priority of course is for anything published by I-CON!

4. Is there an article or book that influenced you as a law student and that continues today to be an important reference point for you?

All works written by John Henry Merryman (1920-2015). I first read his articles on cultural property in 1998, when I was in Law School writing my dissertation. His books and essays illuminated me and made me immediately understand the legal complexity of all different interests related to art and culture. You can imagine my emotion when I met him in 2008, after some years of exchanging emails on cultural property case studies: at the age of 88, he used to spend all morning working in his study at Stanford. John died in 2015 and we all miss him. He was a great comparative lawyer, who also built the basis of art law. The study of public law allowed me to properly deal with all of these topics: I am hugely grateful to Sabino Cassese and to Giulio Napolitano – and will always be deeply indebted to them – for showing me this path and wisely leading me along the way.

5. What are some of the big questions ripe for inquiry in your area of research interest?

In the field of cultural heritage law, the key question is always the same: Who owns the past? And this allows us to reflect on the very notion of cultural property and on its borders. Moreover, the recent decision by the International Criminal Court on the Al-Mahdi case – related to the destruction of cultural property in Mali – brought once again to the fore the importance of international criminal law in this field. Last May the Council of Europe has adopted a new Convention on crimes against cultural property. Therefore, some of the big questions are about what kind of legal instruments can truly protect world cultural heritage. And how does such protection relate to the field of human rights? Lastly, another important area of research is the relationship between public (law) and private (law) in the management of cultural heritage, namely with respect to cultural institutions, such as museums.