What’s New in Public Law

—Chiara Graziani, PhD Student in Comparative Constitutional Law, University of Genoa (Italy)

In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in 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 public law blogosphere.

To submit relevant developments for our weekly feature on “What’s New in Public Law,” please email contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The European Court of Justice held that the notion of ‘right of access’ includes grandparents’ right to see their grandchildren.
2. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Romania and Lithuania for complicity in the CIA extraordinary rendition program.
3. The US Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Arkansas abortion law.
4. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey for breach of art. 8 ECHR by preventing parents from burying their children in the town of their choice.
5. The Israeli High Court of Justice upheld an amendment to the Basic Law on the Knesset allowing 90 members of the legislative to expel one of their colleagues if they believe that he/she incites or support racism, armed struggle against the state, or terrorism.
6. The European Court of Justice held that Belgian law prohibiting ritual slaughter of animals by Muslims–unless they are carried out in approved slaughterhouses–does not infringe freedom of religion.
7. The US Supreme Court ruled that police searches over a motorcycle parked outside of a private property infringe the Fourth Amendment.
8. The Supreme Court of Canada refused a man’s request to take back his guilty plea because he did not demonstrate how he would have behaved differently, had he known he could be deported.
9. The European Court of Justice ruled that the EU Directive on unfair terms in consumer contracts may apply to educational establishments and that this has to be assessed by national courts of their own motion.
10. The French Conseil Constitutionnel held that the offence of the French Criminal Code punishing public apology of terrorist acts is not unconstitutional.

In the News

1. The designated President of the Council of Ministers in Italy, Giuseppe Conte, presented his list of ministers to the President of the Republic (for the second time) and the new government was sworn in on Friday, 1 June.
2. Lord Reed was appointed Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court.
3. The Republic of Ireland voted in a popular referendum in favor of overturning the abortion ban.
4. The EU General Data Protection regulation has been applicable since 25 May.
5. A second round of elections will be held in Colombia on 17 June.
6. Georgia accused Russia of war crimes in closing evidence before the European Court of Human Rights.
7. An Israel national airline sued Israel alleging aerial discrimination.
8. The Hungarian Government submitted a bill to the Parliament imposing criminal sanctions to groups supporting or financing illegal immigration.
9. Lybia agreed to elections in December under the auspices of the UN, in order to end the situation of conflict in the country.
10. A special criminal court will start investigating on alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Central African Republic.

New Scholarship

1. Martin Belov (2018), Global Constitutionalism and its Challenges to Westphalian Constitutional Law (discussing how, since the end of the 20^th century, global constitutionalism has challenged and transformed the Westphalian constitutional tradition)
2. David Bilchitz & David Landau (eds.), The Evolution of the Separation of Powers. Between the Global North and the Global South (2018) (discussing how the doctrine of the separation of powers has changed due to shifts in constitutional practice)
3. Donal K. Coffey (2018), Constitutionalism in Ireland, 1932-1938. National, Commonwealth, and International Perspectives (considering a series of key issues in Irish constitutionalism in 1930s, a turbulent decade for the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and Europe)
4. Katarzyna Granat (2018), The Principle of Subsidiarity and its Enforcement in the EU Legal Order (analyzing and evaluating the EU mechanism of subsidiarity represented by the Early Warning System and the role that national parliaments have played within it)
5. Elspeth Guild, Didier Bigo & Mark Gibney (eds.), Extraordinary Renditions. Addressing the Challenges of Accountability (2018) (examining the US-led program of extraordinary renditions and the investigations carried out by authorities in quest for accountability and re-establishment of the rule of law)
6. Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz (2018), On the Strategic Reading of the Constitutional Document. Mapping out Frontiers of New Constitutional Research (analyzing the erosion of rule of law principles in different contexts and examining the role of institutions to protect democracies)
7. Darrel R. Ross (2018), Civil Liability in Criminal Justice (providing information and recommendation on how criminal justice practitioners in the US should behave in order to perform their duties within the limits of justice)
8. Tom Ruys, Olivier Corten & Alexandra Hofer (eds.), The Use of Force in International Law (describing cases in which states resorted to the use of force and discussing methodological approaches to the matter)
9. Paul F. Scott (2018), The National Security Constitution (analyzing how different approaches to the protection of national security have affected the constitutional order of the United Kingdom)
10. Alan Wehbé (2018), The Free Press and National Security: Renewing the Case for a Federal Shield Law (arguing in favor of a federal reporter’s shield law in matters of national security)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Administrative and Regulatory Law News accepts submissions for the summer issue. The deadline to submit pieces is June 8, 2018.
2. The Faculty of Law of the University of Graz welcomes proposals of papers for the Citizenship Conference 2018, to be held in Graz on November 20-21, 2018. The deadline to send abstracts is July 1, 2018.
3. The Department of national and supranational public law of the University of Milan is hiring a one-year Post-Doc Fellow for the project ‘The principle of economic conditionality in comparative perspective’. The deadline for application is July 11, 2018, with interview on July 17, 2018 and start on August 1, 2018. For information, contact Antonia Baraggia: antonia.baraggia@unimi.it.
4. The Verfassung und Recht in Übersees/Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America welcomes submissions for the special issue ‘Between Centralized Federalism and Regionalized Centralism: Varieties of Territorial Organizaton in Latin America’. The deadline for sending abstracts and CVs is August 1, 2018.
5. Maastricht University accepts nominations for the Theo van Boven – Maastricht Human Rights Research Prize 2018. Nominations must be received by September 15, 2018.
6. The T.M.C. Asser Instituut (The Hague) invites submissions for the 2018 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law. The deadline for submissions of articles is October 1, 2018.
7. Oxford University Press welcomes book proposals for its new Series in Comparative Constitutionalism.

Elsewhere Online

1. Nicola McEwen, Crisis, headache, or sideshow: how should the UK government respond to the Scottish parliament’s decision to withhold consent for the Withdrawal Bill?, The Constitution Unit
2. Coree Brown-Swan, A New Vision of Independence?, Blog of the Centre of Constitutional Change
3. Lorna Woods, Revision of Audiovisual Media Services Directive – Video-sharing Platforms, EU Law Analysis
4. Erika Rackley & Rosemary Hunter, Judicial Leadership, Lady Hale and the UK Supreme Court, UK Constitutional Law Association Blog
5. Jaclyn L. Neo, Malaysia’s Democratic Hope: Proposals for Constitutional Reform, Constitutionnet
6. Amy Howe, Justices Stay Out of Arkansas Abortion Case, Scotusblog
7. Orla Lynskey, Why has the new GDPR legislation been introduced?, LSE Thinks
8. Iddo Porat, The Problem with Iceland’s proposed ban on circumcision, Blog of the IACL, AIDC