What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Sandeep Suresh, Research Associate, Daksh India (Rule of Law Project)

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 Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that Article 136(1) of the Turkish Criminal Code does not violate the right to privacy under Article 20 of the Turkish Constitution.
2. The Chief Justice of Alabama issued an administrative order asking probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
3. The Indian Supreme Court conceded that there was an error in its judgment on reservations in staff promotions delivered in January 2015.
4. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the program that banned commercial set-net fishing in all non-subsistence areas is unconstitutional, as commercial set-net fishermen have the same right to harvest salmon as any other group.
5. The Indian Supreme Court will hear a case concerning the right to religion under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.

In the News

1. The Algerian government released a new draft constitution that limits presidential terms and officially recognizes minority languages.
2. Zambian President, Edgar Lungu, signed the nation’s new constitution into effect on January 5, 2016.
3. Poland enacted a law enabling the new government to appoint the heads of public TV and radio in a move seen as a jolt to media freedom.
4. Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, lent support to efforts calling for the first United States Constitutional Convention since 1787.
5. The Union Government of India granted permission for individuals to engage in the traditional bull taming sport of Jallikattuin Tamil Nadu despite the ban imposed by the Supreme Court.
6. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, stated that she will back tougher laws on deporting immigrants.

New Scholarship

1. Yaniv Roznai and Nadiv Mordechay, Access to Justice 2.0: Access to Legislation and Beyond, The Theory and Practice of Legislation (forthcoming) (providing a conceptual account of “access to legislation” and “access to legislative information,” which consolidates an important and relatively new movement within the access to justice field)
2. Ralf Michaels, Transnationalizing Comparative Law, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law (forthcoming) (discussing the relevance of comparative law and the need for this branch of law to move beyond the state and positive law and to endorse cultural approaches)
3. Adelaide Remiche, When Judging Is Power: A Gender Perspective on the French and American Judiciaries, Journal of Law and Courts (2015) (examining the feminization of the judiciary in France and the United States through the prism of the “imagined judge,” e., the judge as he or she is represented in a specific legal culture)
4. Andrew Dyer, Irreducible Life Sentences: What Difference Have the European Convention on Human Rights and the UK Human Rights Act Made?, Human Rights Law Review (forthcoming 2016) (comparing the laws of United Kingdom and Australia concerning irreducible life sentences and reasons that human rights charters and/or other strong human rights guarantees in a jurisdiction can produce improved protections for offenders against penal populism)
5. Conor A. Gearty, The State of Freedom in Europe, European Law Journal (forthcoming) (tracing the origin and reasons for the crises that have afflicted the breadth of liberty and human security in the European Union today)
6. Sahar F. Aziz, Independence Without Accountability: The Judicial Paradox of Egypt’s Failed Transition to Democracy, Penn State Law Review (forthcoming) (examining why the Egyptian judiciary, despite its liberal rulings in the 1990s, ultimately obstructed the populist demands for revolutionary change and challenging the proposition that Egypt’s judiciary is one of the few state institutions willing to defy executive authority and among the most independent judiciaries in the Middle East)
7. Daniel E. Herz-Roiphe and David Singh Grewal, Make Me Democratic, But Not Yet: Sunrise Lawmaking and Democratic Constitutionalism, 90 New York University Law Review 1975 (2015) (presenting a comprehensive examination of “sunrise lawmaking” which is meant to bring constitutional provisions that only take effect after a substantial time delay)
8. Symeon C. Symeonides, Choice of Law in the American Courts in 2015: Twenty-Ninth Annual Survey, 64 American Journal of Comparative Law (forthcoming 2016) (covering cases decided by American state and federal appellate courts in 2015 with a focus on those cases that may contribute something new to the development or understanding of conflicts law—and, particularly, choice of law)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. University of Portsmouth School of Law, the European University Institute, and the McCoubrey Centre for International Law of the University of Hull are organising a two-day International Conference on “Building Consensus on European Consensus” to be held on June 1-2, 2016. Abstracts must be sent by January 31, 2016.
2. No Foundations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and Justice is inviting submissions for its issue NoFo 13 (2016). Authors must send their manuscripts before March 1, 2016.
3. The Summer Academy in Global Food Law & Policy is inviting applicants for its one-week summer programme that brings together practitioners, policymakers, industry representatives, and leading academics working in the field of food law and policy to take place on July 18-21, 2016 in Bilbao, Spain.
4. The University of Arizona College of Law‘s Transgender Studies Quarterly is calling for paper abstracts for its International Trans-disciplinary Conference on Gender, Embodiment and Sexuality—“Trans*studies”—to be held on September 7-10, 2016. Interested authors must send a 250-word abstract by February 15,
5. Michigan State University School of Law, the University of Michigan School of Law, the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University, and the University of Wisconsin Law School are organizing the First Annual Administrative Law New Scholarship Roundtable from June 23-24, 2016. Abstracts must be sent before March 18, 2016.
6. The Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions in collaboration with Boston College Law School under the auspices of Israeli Association of Public Law are inviting submissions for the “Symposium on Constitutionalism under Extreme Conditions” to be held at the University of Haifa in Israel on July 18, 2016. Abstracts are due by February 1, 2016.
7. The Younger Comparativists Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law is inviting submissions for the Phanor J. Eder LL.B./J.D. Prize in Comparative Law in connection with its Fifth Annual Conference to be held on March 18-19, 2016, at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The deadline for submissions has been extended to January 30, 2016.

Elsewhere Online

1. Richard Albert, A Moral, But Not Constitutional, Obligation to Hold a Referendum, The Huffington Post
2. Jahnavi Sen, Not a Great Year for Free Speech, The Wire
3. Michael C. Dorf, Symposium: Abortion is still a fundamental right, SCOTUS Blog
4. Dan Harris, China Laws As Written Versus China Laws in Real Life, China Law Blog
5. Michael Solis, Japan and South Korea’s Non-Solution for the “Comfort Women”, The Huffington Post
6. Yves Ballez, Ariadne Frangi, Thomas Ngeze, Dorien Surinx,Pieter Cannoot, and Juan Benjumea Moreno, Belgium and the refugee crisis: the quest for solutions, BelConLawBlog
7. New York Times Editorial Board, France’s Diminished Liberties, The New York Times