What’s New in Public Law

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–Marieta Safta, Professor Phd, Titu Maiorescu University, Bucharest, Romania

–Niels Graaf, Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

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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 US Supreme Court unanimously decided in Catholic Charities Bureau Inc v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission that the state violated the First Amendment by denying the organization a tax exemption. The court held that determining religious status based on whether services are “primarily religious” unlawfully imposes a religious preference.
2. The US Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling making it easier for individuals to bring “reverse discrimination” claims under federal civil rights law. The case involved a heterosexual woman who claimed that she did not get a promotion at a state agency because she is heterosexual.
3. The German Constitutional Court dismissed a legal challenge to the outcome of February’s parliamentary elections. The complaint was filed by the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which narrowly missed entering parliament in the February snap Bundestag election, receiving 4.98 percent of the vote—just below the required 5 percent threshold. The BSW argued that the Bundestag had wrongfully failed to establish a legal remedy that would allow for an immediate recount of votes in cases where a party narrowly misses the threshold. The constitutional complaints were deemed inadmissible because the applicant did not sufficiently substantiate the possibility of a violation of its right to equal opportunity.
4. The Conseil constitutionnel (France’s sui generis Constitutional Court) issued a ruling on Friday, May 23, that certain provisions of the 2024 immigration law allowing the detention of asylum seekers were unconstitutional. The decision followed a priority question of constitutionality submitted by several associations. The challenged article permitted detention of asylum seekers who posed a threat to public order or were deemed a flight risk, even outside any removal procedure. The associations argued that this violated Article 66 of the French Constitution, which protects individual liberty. The Conseil agreed, stating that liberty must not be restricted by unnecessary severity and that any limitation must be proportionate, necessary, and appropriate. It ruled that a vague “threat to public order” or an ill-defined “risk of flight” was insufficient to justify detention.
5. The European Court of Justice in Joined Cases C-647/21 | D.K. and C-648/21 | M.C and M.F. stated that the decision to withdraw cases from a judge must be based on objective and precise criteria. It must also include a statement of reasons in order to show that the withdrawal of cases was not arbitrary and that it did not amount to a disguised disciplinary penalty.
6. The European Court of Justice, in Case C-359/24 | Commission v Greece finds, for the first time, that Greece has failed to update the flood risk management plans for 14 river basin districts.
7. The European Court of Justice, In Case C-460/23 | [Kinsa],decided that a third-country national who enters the European Union in an unauthorised manner cannot be penalised for facilitation of unauthorised entry solely because he or she is accompanied by his or her minor child. EU law precludes national legislation criminalising such conduct.
8. The European Court of Human Rights, in the case of Spivak v. Ukraine, held that there had been several violations of the Convention. The case concerned the applicant’s compulsory psychiatric treatment at the National High Security Psychiatric Hospital as ordered by a criminal court. It had found that he had committed attempted murder, but was exempt from criminal responsibility on the basis of his mental state at the time of the offence. The Court found that the applicant’s continued psychiatric detention in the hospital after the termination of coercive medical measures by a court had been unlawful and that the hearings on the continuation of his compulsory in-patient medical treatment had not met the basic requirements of justice.
9. The Constitutional Court of Romania found certain provisions of Law 176/2010 unconstitutional, specifically those requiring politicians and public officials to annually disclose their assets and interests. The Court found unconstitutional   the obligation to declare not only one’s own income, but also those of one’s spouse and dependent children. The Court also found unconstitutional the obligation to publish the declarations online, holding that it violates the right to privacy.

In the News

1. The Dutch Government collapsed after far-right leader Geert Wilders pulled out of the coalition on June 3. Wilders’ move ends a fragile coalition that had come together in July 2024. His far-right, anti-immigration party PVV was the largest in the coalition. With the collapse of the government, new elections have been scheduled for the end of October 2025.
2. The Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-769/22 | Commission v Hungary was made public: Advocate General Ćapeta considers that, by prohibiting or restricting access to LGBTI content, Hungary infringed EU law. She suggests that the Court should also find a self-standing infringement of Article 2 TEU, which sets out the European Union’s fundamental values
3. The Venice Commission and the Council of Europe Office in Chișinău, together with the Central Election Commission, the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training, and the National Institute of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, co-organised a training on “Peculiarities of examination and settlement of electoral disputes”. The event brought together Moldovan judges, prosecutors, and dedicated electoral staff, representatives of the Venice Commission and local experts in electoral matters.
4. On May 28, 2005, the European Law Institute (ELI)–Mount Scopus European Standards of Judicial Independence took centre stage at a high-level conference held at the Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU in Brussels. Co-organised by the ELI, the Polish Ministry of Justice, and the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, the event examined the Polish judiciary crisis through the lens of European standards.

New Scholarship

1. Tamar De Waal, Democratic Equality in a Populist Anti-Multicultural Era (this article explores what the future role of multiculturalism is, or may be, in Europe by looking at the case of the Netherlands. It focuses on how to respond to the tensions between, on the one hand, prevalent discourses on the dangers, demise and reckoning of multiculturalism and, on the other hand, the promotion of equal citizenship and liberal-democratic values).
2. Piątek W. Restoring the Rule of Law in Poland: Towards the Most Appropriate Way to Put an End to the Systemic Violation of Judicial Independence (this case note stresses that for states other than Poland, especially those with their own national councils of the judiciary, the European Court of Justice in Wałęsa v Poland set out additional standards of judicial independence, indicating how to protect the judiciary from excessive influence by the executive and legislative powers).
3. Giacinto della Cananea and Angela Ferrari Zumbini (ed.), Administrative Rulemaking and Planning in European Laws was published as part of the Common Core of European Administrative Law series. This book sheds light on an often-overlooked area of public law: administrative rules and plans, which have a significant impact on economics and society. Through comparative research covering eight EU Member States, the EU itself, the UK, The Netherlands, Norway, the US, and China, it explores key questions around discretion, transparency, and legal remedies.

 Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. Venice Commission, 143rd plenary session (13- 14 June 2025); on the agenda, in particular, 12 opinions concerning 8 countries (Chile, France, Haiti, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, North Macedonia).
2. Central European Academy Conference – ASCEA IV (2-3 October 2025, Budapest) – The conference, traditionally organized for the fourth time by the Central European Academy, aims to bring together outstanding young researchers from across the Central European region. It provides a platform for the next generation of legal scholars to engage in discussions on the most relevant and topical legal issues facing the region today. The event will be structured around several thematic panels, each organized by research interns at the Central European Academy and Ph.D. students of the Central European Comparative Law program at the Ferenc Deák Doctoral School of Law, University of Miskolc.
3. 2025 ICON•S Annual Conference in Brasília registration deadline is June 15, and all attendees are required to register, even if their paper or panel has been accepted. The conference will feature a full program of panels, events, and receptions. To confirm your participation and secure your place, please complete your registration as soon as possible. You can register here.
4. Call for Papers: ‘The Mixed Courts of Egypt, 1876–1949 – Between Imperial Internationalism and Shared Legal Knowledge’. Conference dates: 23–24 February 2026. Submission deadline: 1 July 2025. Travel funding available.
5. European Court of Human Rights – Open Day: on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights and the 30th anniversary of the Human Rights Building, the European Court of Human Rights will open its doors to the public on Sunday, 21 Sept. 2025.

Elsewhere Online

1. Rumeysa Budak, Behind Bars, Beyond Rights: The ECtHR’s Shift on Prisoners’ Rights, (5 June 2025)
2. Marek Domin,Slovakia’s Electoral Reform at a Crossroads: Fico’s Proposals for Change (3 June 2025)
3. Theunis Roux, Workshop my Paper Series – Grand Narratives of Transition and the Quest for Democratic Constitutionalism: Response to Commentators (3 June 2025)
4. Blaga Thavard, Populism over Principle: Bulgaria’s Euro Referendum and the Limits of Populist Constitutionalism (5 June 2025).