What’s New in Comparative Public Law

—Mohamed Abdelaal, Alexandria University (Egypt)

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 US Supreme Court agreed to hear oral argument on the scope of the right to marry.
2. The Constitutional Court of Turkey will decide  whether penal courts of peace should be eliminated.
3. The US Supreme Court refused to hear another challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
4. A Turkish court banned access to the website of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
5. The US Supreme Court heard arguments concerning the Natural Gas Act in ONEOK Inc. v. Learjet Inc.

In the News

1. A criminal court in Egypt dismissed charges of embezzlement against former President Mubarak.
2. In UK, plans to restrict judicial review were withdrawn for further consideration.
3. The US Supreme Court is set to decide a religious rights case.
4. Michigan gun legislation vetoed by governor.
5. Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced that Tunisia failed to answer unlawful killings during the popular uprising in 2011.

New Scholarship

1. Re-Exploring Subnational Constitutionalism. A Special Issue, 6(2) Delledonne, G. Martinico, P. Popelier (eds) Perspectives on Federalism (2014) (collecting papers on subnational constitutionalism presented at the latest World Congress of the International Association of Constitutional Law in Oslo)
2. Scott J. Shackelford & Andraz Kastelic, Toward a State-Centric Cyber Peace? Analyzing the Role of National Cybersecurity Strategies in Enhancing Global Cybersecurity (2015) (assessing the notion that nations bear the primary responsibility for managing cyber-attacks and mitigating cybercrime by analyzing thirty-four national cybersecurity strategies)
3. Albert H. Y. Chen, Constitutions, Constitutional Practice and Constitutionalism in East Asia (discussing the types of regimes that have existed in modern East Asia, before proceeding to investigate the relationship between constitutions and regime types)
4. Brian Dennison, The political question doctrine in Uganda: A reassessment in the wake of CEHURD, (18) J Law, Democracy & Development 264 (2014) (explaining the political question doctrine and its role in achieving separation of powers and allocating of government responsibilities in Uganda)
5. James Stellios, The Centralisation of Judicial Power within the Australian Federal System, 42(2) Federal Law Review 357 (2014) (considering the patterns of centralisation within the Australian federal judicial system, and how the architecture of judicial federalism is subject of less attention.)

Calls for Papers

1. Koç University Law School, Boston College Law School and the International Society of Public Law invite submissions for a full-day workshop on unamendable constitutional provisions, to be held on the campus of Koç University Law School in Istanbul on Tuesday, June 9, 2015.
2. The Law Departments of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona and University of Trento welcome submissions for a comparative constitutional law seminar to be held on July 9-10, 2015 in Trento, Italy.
3. The McCoubrey Centre for International Law invites submissions for its second conference for research scholars and early career scholars, addressing questions surrounding customary international law to be held on July 2-3, 2015 at the University of Hull School of Law.
4. The European Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for its 11^th Annual Conference to be held in Oslo, Norway on 10-12 September 2015.
5. The International Journal of Law and Legal Jurisprudence Studies is now accepting submissions for its new volume.
6. Utrecht Journal of International and European Law invites submissions for its upcoming issue.
7. The University Institute for European Studies (IDEE), Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at CEU San Pablo University, with the support of the European Commission, is now considering abstracts for an International Conference on “Solidarity in Hard Times. Solidarity and the European Social Model in times of economic crisis.” The conference will take place at CEU San Pablo University (Madrid) on the 11th and 12th June 2015.
8. University of Western Ontario in London, Canada will host the 2015 Western Law Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference on May 21-22, 2015. The conference theme is “Law: Helping Hand or Iron Fist?” Submissions are now open.

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Jacob Gershman, Do NYC Cops Have a First Amendment Right to Protest De Blasio?, WSJ Law Blog
2. Gautham Nagesh, Republican Lawmakers Propose Net-Neutrality Legislation, WSJ Law Blog
3. Steven D. Schwinn, Does the Natural Gas Act Preempt State Antitrust Claims?, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
4. Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Felons, Families and Prosecutorial Discretion, Jurist
5. Gerard Magliocca, A National University, Concurring Opinions