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. Kosovo’s Constitutional Court suspended an agreement to normalize relations with Serbia.
2. The European Court of Human Rights rejected a free speech claim from French comedian Dieudonné.
3. The Constitutional Court of Georgia ruled unconstitutional a provision barring former Soviet officials from public institutions.
4. Slovenia’s Constitutional Court annulled a decision by a High Court to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against a phone operator.
5. The Supreme Court of Uganda ordered the Constitutional Court to hear mental health cases.
6. The Dutch Supreme Court referred a landmark case against the file-sharing website Pirate Bay to the European Court of Justice.

In the News

1. The South African President appointed new Constitutional Court judge.
2. In Thailand, the National Reform Steering Assembly proposed for a provisional chapter to be included in the new Constitution, providing for a transitional period before a return to democracy.
3. Catalonia vows to press ahead with plans to break away from Spain, despite a decision by the Constitutional Court to suspend the secession process.
4. Russia’s Constitutional Court is set to review the foreign expulsion rules.

New Scholarship

1. Matthias Lehmann Bonn, Recognition as a Substitute for Conflict of Laws?, In ‘General Principles of European Private International Law’, Stefan Leible (ed), Kluwer Law International (forthcoming) (analyzing arguments for and against an EU version of the Full Faith and Credit Clause in the US Constitution)
2. Andrew Novak, Comparative Executive Clemency, The Constitutional Pardon Power and the Prerogative of Mercy in Global Perspective, Routledge 2015 (comparing constitutional clemency and the pardon power in the common law world)
3. Paul Blokker, EU Democratic Oversight and Domestic Deviation from the Rule of Law: Sociological Reflections, Closa and D. Kochenov (eds), Reinforcing the Rule of Law Oversight in the European Union, Cambridge University Press (forthcoming) (discussing the sociology of constitutional democracy and the rule of law in the EU and its Member States)
4. Helen Meeman, Nicola Rees, Israel Doron, Towards Human Rights in Residential Care for Older Persons, International Perspectives, Routledge (forthcoming 2016) (exploring the possibility of establishing new conventions for the rights of older persons)
5. Anna Su, Judging Religious Sincerity?, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (forthcoming) (examining the approach of three courts–the U.S Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Canada and the European Court of Human Rights–to judging the sincerity of religious believers in accommodation claims)
6. Scott Stephenson, When Constitutional Conventions Fail, (2015) 35(2) Dublin University Law Journal (forthcoming) (arguing that constitutional conventions can present constitutional actors and the public with an opportunity to discuss neglected constitutional issues or to reframe them where the debate becomes stagnant)
7. Lex Gill, and Dennis Redeker, and Urs Gasser, Towards Digital Constitutionalism? Mapping Attempts to Craft an Internet Bill of Rights, Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2015-15 (developing a framework of “digital constitutionalism” on an analysis of thirty initiatives spanning from 1999 to 2015, seeking to advance rights of Internet governance)

Calls for Papers

1. International Organization and Harvard University issued a call for submission of paper proposals for a workshop on ‘Assessment Power in World Politics’ to be held on May 6-7, 2016.
2. The European Commission and the Council of the Notariats of the European Union will hold a joint conference on ‘Cross-border successions in the EU’ in Brussels, Belgium on November 19, 2015.
3. The Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance of the University of Luxembourg will hold a conference entitled “Frontex: Legal Questions and Current Controversies” on November 27, 2015 at the University of Luxembourg.
4. The Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law (CJICL) issued a call for submissions to its volume 5, issue 2. The deadline for submissions is December 12, 2015.
5. University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Illinois College of Law, Princeton University, and the American Society of Comparative Law issued a call for papers for the ‘Annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop’ to be held on April 15-16, 2016, at the University of Illinois College of Law in Urbana-Champaign.
6. The University of Bonn invites submissions for its conference to be held on April 6-7, 2017.
7. 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 (IAPL), invite submissions for a symposium on ‘Constitutionalism under Extreme Conditions’ to be held in University of Haifa, in Israel, on July 18, 2016.
8. The Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law with the support of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law will hold a conference on developments in the High Court and other Australian courts in 2015 and beyond. The early-bird rate for general registrations is available till December 18, 2015.

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Lebogang Maxelegu, Eritrean Independence: Form over substance, AfricLaw
2. Kevin Wiggins, European Court of Justice Declares Safe Harbor for Transferring Personal Data from Europe Invalid, JDSupra
3. Warren Binford, Does American Need A Children’s Bill of Rights? Jurist
4. Ruthann Robson, Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Texas HB2 Abortion Case, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
5. Andrew Fagan, Analysis: Aung San Suu Kyi victory will test commitment to human right in Myanmar, Blog of the IACL, AIDC
6. Thomas Adams, The Politics of ‘Judicial Power’, UK Constitutional Law Association