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 Canadian Supreme Court has granted applications for leave to appeal in three important securities class actions.

2. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ruled that Alabama’s requirement that all doctors who provide abortions must have staff privileges at a local hospital is unconstitutional.

3. The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld legislation known as the Budget Repair Bill, which significantly limits the collective bargaining rights of public sector employees.

4. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is making it clear that she intends to stay on the Court despite calls for her to step down during President Obama’s tenure and while Democrats have a majority in the Senate.

5. Two members of the feminist group Pussy Riot are suing the Russian government in the European Court of Human Rights over their imprisonment for a 2012 “punk prayer” protest at a Moscow cathedral.

New Scholarship

1. Thomas Schultz, Why Being Law Matters, Chapter 1 of Transnational Legality: Stateless Law and International Arbitration (Oxford University Press 2014) (referencing international law, stateless law, and international arbitration to ask whether it matters that we call something “law”)

2. Hugo Cyr and Monica Elena Popescu, Constitutional Reasoning in the Supreme Court of Canada, in András Jakab, Arthur Dyevre and Giulio Itzcovich, Comparative Constitutional Reasoning (tentative title) (Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming) (providing an overall account of the Supreme Court of Canada’s modes of constitutional reasoning)

3. Koji Miyakawa, Mark Levin, and Megumi Honami Lachapelle, Inside the Supreme Court of Japan – From the Perspective of a Former Justice, Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 196-212 (2014) (Koji Miyakawa, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan, contextualizes his time on the Court with regard to contemporaneous events in Japan,  addresses scholarly writing about the Court’s operations with comparisons to the U.S. Supreme Court, shares specific recollections of key cases, and presents his impressions regarding the work of the Supreme Court’s Office of Judicial Research Officials)

4. Stefano Bertea and Claudio Sarra, Foreign Precedents in Judicial Argument: A Theoretical Account, University of Leicester School of Law Research Paper No. 14-20 (2014) (laying a theoretical basis for addressing questions pertaining to the effect of foreign precedents in adjudication)

5. Arun K. Thiruvengadam, Forswearing ‘Foreign Moods, Fads or Fashions’? Contextualising the Refusal of Koushal to Engage with Foreign Law, National University of Juridical Sciences Law Review (NUJS LR), July 2014, Forthcoming (focusing on the role that foreign and comparative law played in the Supreme Court of India’s Suresh Kumar Koushal v. Naz Foundation decision)

6. Gerard-René De Groot and Patrick R. Wautelet, Reflections on Quasi-Loss of Nationality in Comparative, International and European Perspective, Liberty and Security in Europe Papers No. 66 (2014) (examining whether national, European, and international laws offer some protection against quasi-loss of nationality)

In the News

1. The ESRC Future of the UK and Scotland programme, the David Hume Institute, and the Hunter Foundation announced the publication of the e-book “Scotland’s Decision: 16 Questions to think about for the referendum on 18 September.”

2. A judge in the apex court of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India has been accused of sexually harassing a female judge from a lower court.

3. After weeks of partisan bickering, Afghanistan’s two presidential rivals formally pledged to speed up an audit of the disputed June 14 runoff election.

4. Russia has banned most imports of Western food products, indicating an escalation of a global economic war.

5. Best Choice Schools ranked the 50 most impressive law school buildings in the world.

Elsewhere Online

1. Nick Barber, After the Vote: The Citizenship Question, UK Constitutional Law Association

2. Chantal Hébert, Scotland’s referendum unlikely to help Quebec sovereigntists, The Star

3. Shawn Marie Boyne, The Future of the Right to Remain Silent in Europe, Comparative Law Prof Blog

4. Pedro Campos, Cuba Urgently Needs a New Constitution, ConstitutionNet

5. Lindsey A. Zahn, How Are Organic Wine Labels Regulated in the U.S.?, On Reserve – A Wine Law Blog

Calls for Papers / Conferences

1. The Section on Law and South Asian Studies of the Association of American Law Schools invites papers for its session on “The Postcolonial Lives of Colonial Law in South Asia” during the 2015 AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., which is scheduled for January 3, 2015.

2. The Organising Committee of the University of Copenhagen Postgraduate Law Conference 2015 welcomes postgraduate PhD students from all third level institutions throughout Denmark, Europe, and elsewhere to submit an abstract of a paper to deliver at the conference.

3. The World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists invites proposals for papers for the Fourth Worldwide Congress to be held at McGill University’s Faculty of Law in Montreal, Canada on June 24-26, 2015.

4. The European Law Journal, HEC Paris,and the Center for Research on Transnational Law (CTL), Peking University School of Transnational Law (PKUSTL), Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, are welcoming proposals for presentation at the 10th International Workshop for Young Scholars (WISH).

5. The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany invites original and non‐published submissions for the Lex Mercatoria Publica‐Workshop on “The (Comparative) Constitutional Law of Private‐Public Arbitration” to be held on November 21-22, 2014.