What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Patrick Yingling, Reed Smith LLP

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 European Court of Human Rights ruled that an employer may monitor an employee’s private communications when the communications are transmitted with the employer’s internet and hardware.
2. The Supreme Court of Canada issued a ruling to allow doctor assisted suicide under certain specific circumstances and granted the government four months to pass a law that would govern doctors taking part in the practice.
3. Germany’s Constitutional Court will rehear five lawsuits alleging that the country should oppose the European Central Bank’s 2012 bond-buying program even after European Union judges last year cleared it with minor strings attached.
4. Egypt’s Court of Cassation rejected ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s appeal of his corruption conviction.
5. The Ontario Superior Court ruled that police orders requiring telecommunications companies to hand over cellphone user data breached the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

In the News

1. Tajikistan’s parliament is considering a proposal to allow President Imomali Rakhmonto run for an unlimited number of terms.
2. The European Commission launched a probe of Poland’s recent clampdown on its Constitutional Tribunal, taking the first step toward possible sanctions for actions that may violate the European Union’s democratic principles.
3. The Japanese government plans to revise the public offices election law to enable citizens to vote at major stations and commercial complexes other than designated voting places.
4. Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for a convention of U.S. states to pass nine new amendments to the U.S. Constitution in order to limit the powers of the federal government.
5. Sri Lanka’s new government presented its plan for a new constitution aimed at devolving power and preventing ethnic tensions.
6. Taiwan opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen became the island’s first female president and secured an historic legislative majority for her Democratic Progressive Party

New Scholarship

1. Stephen E. Gottlieb, Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and the Breakdown of American Politics (2016) (comparing foreign courts, political science and American traditions on preserving democracy with the U.S. Supreme Court, concluding that the latter is destabilizing American democracy)
2. Mark Leeming, Ministerial Override Certificates and the Law/Fact Distinction – A Comparison between Australia and the United Kingdom, The UK Supreme Court Yearbook (2015) (examining courts’ approach to Ministerial override certificates and the distinction between questions of fact and questions of law)
3. Rhita Bousta and Yseult Marique, Taking Comparative Administrative Law (Almost) Seriously? Comparative Administrative Law in French & Belgium Legal Education (2016) (highlighting ways in which students studying administrative law are encouraged to become more familiar with foreign legal systems and ways in which legal practice is starting to value the contribution of comparative law)
4. Wim Voermans, Hans-Martien ten Napel and Reijer Passchier, Combining Efficiency and Transparency in Legislative Processes, The Theory and Practice of Legislation (2015) (illustrating the modern-day dynamics of the interplay between the need for expedience and efficiency on the one hand, and the demand for openness, inclusiveness and transparency on the other by looking into legislative processes)
5. Matthew Finkin, Beclouded Work in Historical Perspective, 37 Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal (2016) (comparing “gig” work to the putting-out system that was a feature of manufacture from early modern Europe forward to modern times)
6. Nico Krisch, The Many Fields of (German) International Law, in Comparative International Law (forthcoming 2016) (contributing to the emerging field of comparative international law with a focus on academic international law in Germany)
7. The European Journal of Legal Studies published its Winter 2015 issue.

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Global Trust Research Project at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law invites candidates interested in exploring themes related to the project to apply for post-doctoral fellowships for the academic year 2016-2017.
2. The Consortium for Social Research on Turkey in collaboration with the Center for Policy and Research on Turkey and the Student Collective of Turkey at the New School invite paper submissions for a full-day conference on constitutional politics in Turkey to be held at the New School for Social Research, New York, on March 4, 2016.
3. Juris Diversitas has issued a call for papers for the 2016 Annual Conference—Unity and/or Diversity—to be held on May 30 to June 1, 2016 at Louisiana State University Law Center.
4. Organizers have issued a call for papers for the Annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop to be held on April 15 and 16, 2016 at the University of Illinois College of Law in Urbana-Champaign.
5. The European Central Bank Legal Research Programme is seeking applications from young researchers for four legal research scholarships.

Elsewhere Online

1. Conversation with Prof. Tom Ginsburg, Professor and Deputy Dean at the UChicago Law School, Legally India
2. Surveillance of Internet usage in the workplace, UK Human Rights Blog
3. Ryan Matthews, The Most Discriminatory Laws You Have Never Heard Of, Jurist
4. Jacob Gershman, The Cruz Eligibility Question: Legal Scholars Weigh In, Wall Street Journal Law Blog
5. Emily Michiko Morris, Thinking Out Loud on Comparative IP Law – Israel’s Proposed New Industrial Design Law, Comparative Law Prof Blog