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What’s New: Week of January 12

By January 12, 2026January 15th, 2026What's New in Public Law

— Mikołaj Wolanin, Master’s student, University of Warsaw (Poland)

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 iconnecteditors@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

  1. The Law on the State Bureau for the Verification and Confiscation of Unjustified Assets was struck down by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo.
  2. The Constitutional Court of Bulgaria resumed its practice of printing its annual report because of the 35th anniversary of its establishment.
  3. The courts in the US are issuing judgments concerning the limits of the free speech on university campuses.
  4. The applications against Türkiye concerning the 2016 attempted coup d’état and its consequences for public officials to the European Court of Human Rights are expected to rise significantly.
  5. The Polish Senate lowered the budget of the Constitutional Tribunal due to allegations regarding the legality of the appointment and impartiality of some of its members.

In the News

  1. The EU–Mercosur trade agreement has been accepted by the representatives of the EU member states amid resistance from farmers and some member states.
  2. On January 11th 2026, parliamentary elections in Benin will be held.
  3. In the USA, the Governor of Florida announed his aim to conduct congressional redistricting in April.
  4. The ruling in the trial of the former president of South Korea is expected to be issued in February.
  5. Mass protests in Iran continue, and NGOs say that dozens of protesters were killed.

New Scholarship

  1. J. Podkowik, A. Chmielarz-Grochal, M. Stębelski, J. Sułkowski (eds.), Gleams of Good Faith in Constitutional Law, Springer, Cham 2025 (an edited volume on the concept of good faith within the constitutional law).
  2. A.E. Waldman, ‘Youth Privacy’s Constitutional Reckoning‘ Georgia Law Review (forthcoming; the article focuses on the US Supreme Court’s jurisprudence about parental rights over children in terms of the privacy laws).
  3. E. Lowens, ‘Interstate Extradition‘ Wisconsin Law Review (forthcoming; an analysis of newspaper coverage between 1930 and 1987 of the refusals of an extradition made by US governors).
  4. J.-B. Harguindéguy, F.J. Jiménez Pérez, M.S. Rodríguez, ‘Who Are the British Parachute MPs?‘ (2026) 5(2) International Journal of Parliamentary Studies 198-213 (the BritPAP dataset on deputies in the UK born in a different region from their constituency is introduced by this article).
  5. M.A. Rivera León, P. Tuleja, ‘Informal Institutions in Judicial Decision-Making: A Study of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (2012-2016)‘ (2025) 21(4) European Constitutional Law Review (an article utilizing an interview methodology and in-depth case study of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal from 2012 to 2016).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

  1. The IACL-AIDC, Uppsala University and Swedigh Defence College invite submissions for a roundtable on “Today’s emergencies and wars – a challenge to international law and constitutional frameworks” that will take place in Sweden in May 2026. Abstracts are due to February 1st.
  2. The International Forum on Democracy and Public Decision will be organized in Romania. Those, who are interested, may submit the proposal up to March 15th.
  3. The ICON-S CEE chapter is open to submissions for its 2026 annual conference that will take place in Ljubljana (Slovenia). The call for submissions is open up to the end of January.
  4. The 2026 World Congress of Constitutional Law in Bogota still welcomes the submissions. The second (and last) phase of the call for abstracts ends on January 23th.
  5. The international conference on the topic: “The Constitutional Courts of European Microstates”, organized on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Constitutional Court of Liechtenstein, will take place in Vaduz in April. Participation in the conference is free of charge.

Elsewhere Online

  1. A. Oancea, A Year in Constitution-Building: What 2025 Revealed, What 2026 May Bring, ConstitutionNet (8 January 2026)
  2. N. Alkiviadou, God Save Freedom of Expression. George Gavriel and the Politics of Offence under Article 10 ECHR, Verfassungsblog (9 January 2026)
  3. M. Kato, How to Become a Justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2025: Be a Political and Religious Man, IACL-AIDC Blog (9 December 2025)
  4. Y. Susskind, Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Why Afghan Survivors Need Sustained ICC Action, Opinio Juris (8 January 2026)
  5. J. Jaraczewski, L. Pech, Kangaroo Courts and EU Law. On the Court of Justice’s Judgment in Commission v. Poland, Verfassungsblog (7 January 2026)

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