What’s New in Public Law

—Yassin Abdalla Abdelkarim, Judge at Sohag Elementary Court, Egypt; LLM Leeds Beckett University, UK.

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. In Indonesia, the Constitutional Court has ruled that national and local elections must be held on separate dates, thus ending a practice known as the “five-ballot boxes”, whereby citizens voted for the House of Representatives, the Regional Representatives Council, the President/Vice President as well as governors, regents and mayors simultaneously. According to the Court, separating national and local elections will improve election quality and simplify the process for Indonesians in exercising their democratic rights.
2. In the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court judgment (Case No. 78/29, 2 August 2025), the plaintiff challenged the constitutionality of provisions in the 1981 Income Tax Law (Articles 178 and 187), under which he had been prosecuted for tax evasion between 2000–2002. The Court held that the 2005 Income Tax Law repealed the 1981 law and introduced lighter penalties, making it the more favorable law for the accused. Consequently, the constitutional challenge to the repealed provisions was inadmissible and the Court ordered costs against the plaintiff.
3. In a decision handed down on 10 September, a majority of the Thai Constitutional Court found that there should be three referendums in the process of drafting a new constitution: respectively addressing the question whether to initiate a constitution-making process, the approach and main substance of a new text and approving the new constitution following parliamentary preparations.   
4. In Bradshaw and Others v the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights held that States should take action when faced with evidence concerning possible (foreign) threats to their democratic processes, they have wide leeway in deciding how to respond. While the initial response to reports of Russian interference was affected by shortcomings, the United Kingdom had since taken legislative and other measures to safeguard democratic integrity such that the very essence of the applicants’ right under Article 3 of Protocol 1 was not impaired.   

In the News

1. Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been convicted of plotting a coup. Four of the five justices on a Brazilian Supreme Court panel voted to convict Bolsonaro on all counts, and sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison. 
2. Justice Kavanaugh of the US Supreme Court has argued that the American system of government seeks to avoid a concentration of power, amid concern in some quarters that the members of the Court are too deferential to President Trump. 
3. During his annual address to the nation, the president of Kazakhstan has indicated that he is in favor of moving towards a unicameral parliament and abolishing the senate, which was created in 1995 under ‘rather difficult, unstable political conditions’.
4. Following deadly anti-corruption youth-led protests in Nepal that caused the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, former chief justice Sushila Karki has been sworn in as the country’s new Prime Minister, becoming the first woman in that position. New parliamentary elections are due to be held by March 2026.

New Scholarship

1. Jill Lepore, We the People – A History of the U.S. Constitution, (Liveright 2025) Recounting centuries of failed attempts, mostly by ordinary Americans, to amend the US Constitution, and challenging the Supreme Court’s monopoly on constitutional interpretation as well as the theory of originalism).
2. Kevin Arlyck, The Nation at Sea – The Federal Courts and American Sovereignty, 1789-1825, Cambridge University Press 2025 (Demonstrating the role that the federal courts played in the early years of the United States in shaping the nation and realizing an increasingly bold conception of American sovereignty).
3. Richard H. Fallon Jr, The Changing Constitution – Constitutional Law in the Trump-Era Supreme Court, Cambridge University Press 2025 (Examining modern rulings by the Supreme Court, including from a historical perspective, and highlighting distinctive aspects of the current era, such as the judges’ philosophies).
4. Amal Sethi, Politicising Constitutional Court Appointments in Europe, European Constitutional Law Review 21(2) (2025) (Proposing a baseline template for constitutional court appointments combining proportional nominations by political groups, confirmation via consensus, secret ballots, and limits on governing party nominations to ensure a more neutral, legitimate and robust court).
5. Mark AW Deng, Emerging Constitutionalism in South Sudan – Challenges and Opportunities, (Hart 2025) (Offering a critical analysis of the constitution-making processes that took place in South Sudan between 2005 and 2011 as well as the subsequent implementation process, identifying the emergence of a form of coercive centralism).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. Submissions for the 2026 issues of Constitutional Studies are now open. Manuscripts can be submitted in English, French and Spanish. The journal is open access and double-blind peer reviewed, accepting submissions on the theory and practice of constitutional government around the world. Details here.
2. Constitutional Studies is convening two panels featuring authors from the June 2025 issue to discuss the state of the field. The first panel on September 18 will address processes of constitutional change in recent decades, the evolution of constitutional systems and judicial impacts in these areas, while the second panel on September 30 will offer new theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses to understand democratic and constitutional backsliding. Details here.
3. Scholars are invited to contribute to the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law on a variety of topics. Details here.

Elsewhere Online

1. The US Department of Justice has indicated that it will request the US Supreme Court to expeditiously review the constitutionality of an executive order by President Trump seeking to end birthright citizenship. (CNN)
2. Lika Chimchiuri, Digital Sovereignty: A Challenge for Developing Democracy. (Cyber Jurisprudence)
3. Muhammad Siraj Khan, Is Algorithmic Discrimination the New Human Rights Crisis? (Cyber Jurisprudence)
4. Medes Malaihollo, The Right to Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples: Brief Reflections on Recent IACtHR Case Law (Human Rights Here)
5. Anne Peters, The Double Effect of “Double Standards” – Both Erosion and Strengthening of International Law (Verfassungsblog)