What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Angelique Devaux, French Licensed Attorney (Notaire)

In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in comparative 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 comparative public law blogosphere.

To submit relevant developments for our weekly feature on “What’s New in Comparative Public Law,” please email contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The French Constitutional Council held compulsory residence orders constitutional within the framework of states of emergency.
2. The Constitutional Court of Kosovo ruled that parts of an European Union-brokered agreement with Serbia violated its constitution.
3. The Constitutional Court of Korea upheld the constitutionality of a law authorizing hormonal chemical castration for convicted sex offenders.
4. The Constitutional Court of Korea dismissed a lawsuit challenging the 1965 bilateral agreement with Japan that settled claims for wartime compensation.
5. The presidents of the Constitutional Courts of Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia and Moldova have initiated a Memorandum of Condemnation of the actions of the Russian Constitutional Court in relation to the annexation of Crimea.
6. Venezuela’s outgoing Congress named 13 justices to the Supreme Court before it loses control of the legislature in January.
7. Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a law that makes it harder for the Constitutional Tribunal to strike down parliamentary legislation.
8. The Supreme Court of Philippines issued two temporary restraining orders against the decisions of the Commission on Elections disqualifying a presidential candidate.

In the News

1. The French government will present a bill to introduce new security provisions into the Constitution.
2. Nepal’s government agreed to amend the country’s new Constitution in order to strenghthen rights of ethnic minorities.
3. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a decree legalizing medical marijuana.
4. The United Nations Security Council endorsed Libyan national unity accord.
5. China passed its first domestic violence law, which prohibits all forms of domestic violence and is supposed to help streamline the process for obtaining restraining orders.
6. The Sudanese National Dialogue Committee reached a unanimous agreement on constitution drafting.
7. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu canceled a meeting on a new Constitution with a pro-Kurdish party.
8. The Sri Lankan government is set to vote on a resolution to turn the current House of Parliament into a Constitutional Assembly.
9. Slovenia rejects same-sex marriage in a referendum.

New Scholarship

1. Namita Wahi, The Fundamental Right to Property in the Indian Constitution, (discussing the evolution of the right to property in the Indian Constitution through its judicial interpretation, legislation, constitutional amendment and challenges on grounds of the right to equality)
2. Anita Ramasastry, Corporate Social Responsibility Versus Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Gap Between Responsibility and Accountability, Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 237-59 (2015) (examining the differences between corporate social responsibility and business and human rights)
3. Josh Blackman and Howard M. Wasserman, The Process of Marriage Equality, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Vol. 43, No 2, pp 243-335 (forthcoming 2016) (offering a history of the marriage equality litigation process and exploring four aspects of federal procedure and jurisdiction doctrine that enabled and frustrated marriage equality’s advance to the Supreme Court)
4. Orla Lynskey, The foundations of EU Data Protection Law, Oxford University Press (2016) (discussing the evolution of European Union data protection law and its context within the wider regulatory framework)
5. Andrew Godwin, Cheng Han Tan, Paul Davies, Jeremy Gans, Edwin Simpson, Five Lectures on the Common Law with Comparative Reference to the Law in China, Tsinghua Chia Law Review, Vol.8, No.1 (2015) (exploring the development, features, and application of the fundamental areas of the common law, including property law, agency law, equity, criminal law, and tax law with a comparative reference to the approach to these in civil law jurisdictions, particularly China)
6. Igor Judge, The Safest Shield: Lecture, Speeches and Essays, Hart Publishing, Oxford (2015) (presenting a collection of lectures, speeches and essays by Lord Judge on a wide-range of legal topics related to the UK constitutional system, including the constitution, liberties and rights, the administration of justice and the judiciary)
7. Carissima Mathen, The Shadow of Absurdity and the Challenge of Easy Cases: Looking Back on the Supreme Court Act Reference, (2015) 71 Supreme Court Law Review 161 (reviewing the Supreme Court of Canada’s advisory opinion in the Supreme Court Act Reference, which found an appointment of one of its judges void ab initio, and delared the Court itself entrenched under the Constitution against ordinary parliamentary legislation)
8. Adam Shinar, Idealism and Realism in Israeli Constitutional Law, in Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law: Bridging Idealism and Realism (Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Maurice Adams, Anne Meuwese, eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) (examining the relationship between idealism and realism through an analysis of constitution-making, rights protection, and institutional change in Israel’s constitutional system)

Calls for Papers

1. The University of Exeter Law School and the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Faculty of Social Sciences announced a call for papers for a conference on ‘Rethinking Constitutional Democracy – With Special Focus on the United Kingdom and Hungary’, to be held at the ELTE in Budapest, on June 23-24, 2016.
2. Juris Diversitas issued a call for papers for its annual, interdisciplinary conference on comparative law: ‘Unity and/or Diversity’, to be held at Louisiana State University, Law Center, Baton Rouge, on May 30 and June 1, 2016.
3. Laurence Croq, Vincent Meyzie and Vincent Demont (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre – CHISCO) issued a call for papers for a conference on ‘Capital, Credit, and Profession in European Cities, 16th-19th Century’ to be held in Université Paris-Ouest La Défense/Nanterre in Paris, France on February 29, 2016.
4. The editors of the Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law (CJICL) welcome submissions for the CJICL fifth Annual Conference to be held at the University of Cambridge on April 8-9, 2016.
5. The Public Law Group, University of Ottawa issued a call for papers for its sixth annual conference on Emerging Issues in Canadian Public Law, to be held in Ottawa, Canada, on May 25, 2016. The conference will focus on two themes: ‘Reforming our institutions’ and ‘Cooperative federalism and beyond’.
6. The University of Portsmouth School of Law, the European University Institute and the McCoubrey Centre for International Law of the University of Hull Law School issued a call for submissions for a conference on the European consensus (EuC) method of interpretation of the European Court of Human Rights, to be held in Florence, Italy on June 1, 2016.
7. The Utrecht Journal of International and European Law issued a call for papers to be published in its 83rd edition in summer 2016 on ‘General Issues’ within International and European law.
8. PluriCourts at the University of Oslo issued a call for papers for a conference on ‘Strengthening the Validity of International Criminal Tribunals’ to be held in Oslo, on August 29-30, 2016.

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Pascal Jan and Jean-Philippe Derosier, Une mesure inutile et irresponsable, Libération
2. William Aseka, We must include and empower people with disabilities, AfricLaw
3. Debra Cassens Weiss, Law prof proposes law to shut down ISIS recruitment online; Is it constitutional? ABA Journal
4. Sarah Escalante, Ryan Black, Matthew Hall, Ryan Owens, and Eve Ringsmuth, An empirical analysis of emotional language in legal briefs before the Supreme Court, SCOTUSblog
5. Aldo Macedo, Defending Privacy on a Global Scale: The Task of the Century, Oxford Human Rights Hub
6. Elena Maculan, The Colombian “Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non Repetition”: A Holistic and Innovative Proposal, International Law Blog
7. Arkadiusz Radwan, Chess-boxing around the Rule of Law: Polish Constitutionalism at Trial, Verfassungsblog