What’s New in Public Law

–Mohamed Abdelaal, Assistant Professor, Alexandria University Faculty of Law

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 Supreme Court of Canada ruled that military members have no constitutional right for a civilian trial.
2. The Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that academics’ right to freedom of expression was violated by charging them with terror offences.
3. The Constitutional Court of Turkey declared the ban on peaceful protest under emergency rule unconstitutional.
4. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that the public should be granted access to court documents.
5. The Constitutional Court of Romania declared a recent amendment to the criminal code unconstitutional.
6. The High Court of Kenya declared parts of the Information Communication Act unconstitutional.
7. The German Constitutional Court ruled that the European Central Bank’s supervision powers are consistent with the Constitution.

In the News

1. The Parliament of India approved a bill to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005.
2. The President of Peru urges early elections to end the institutional crisis.
3. The Supreme Court of Pakistan constituted a new bench to determine the exact duration of a life sentence.
4. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called for a strike to protest a proposed bill allowing non-doctors to practice medicine.
5. The State of New York decriminalizes marijuana use.

New Scholarship

1. The Estudios de Deusto is pleased to announce its special symposium issue on “Exploring Inter-Order Territories: An application of Carrozza’s teaching to new topics.”
2. The issue of the Rivista di Diritti Comparati is now available.
3. Jeremy D. Bailey, The Idea of Presidential Representation: An Intellectual and Political History (2019) (providing the history and context for a better understanding of presidential representation in the US)
4. Nicholas Petrie, Indications of Inconsistency (2019) (arguing that across the common law world there appears to be an increase in a remedial outcome that the author calls “indications of inconsistency,” and that this is normatively concerning)
5. Ingrid B. Wuerth, The Due Process and Other Constitutional Rights of Foreign Nations, Fordham Law Review (forthcoming 2019) (examining the US Constitution from the perspective of foreign states and providing a broad rethinking of the original understanding of judicial jurisdiction)
6. John C. Harrison, Executive Power (2019) (introducing a new conceptualization of the executive power conferred by Article II of the US Constitution).
7. Jacco Bomhoff, Constitutionalism and Mobility: Expulsion and Escape Among Partial Constitutional Orders (2019) (discussing the concept of mobility as one of many pressing challenges for contemporary constitutionalism)
8. Werner Menski, Public Participation in African Constitutionalism (Book Review), 22 Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal (2019) (arguing that public participation in constitution-making matters for cultivating responsible governance and for fine-tuning justice, focused on immensely rich African evidence within a broader comparative constitutional law context)
9. Ngoc Son BUI, Social Movements and Constitutionalism in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, 1 Asian Journal of Comparative Law (2019) (arguing that a more nuanced account of constitutionalism in East Asia must be situated within the engagement of social movements in discursive venues for a formal and informal constitutional change)
10. Graham Butler, The EU Flexibility Clause is Dead, Long Live the EU Flexibility Clause, in Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt and Xavier Groussot (eds), The Future of Europe: Political and Legal Integration Beyond Brexit (2019) (analyzing the EU’s flexibility clause – Article 352 TFEU)
11. Jenna Sapiano and Beverley Baines, Feminist Curiosity about International Constitutional Law and Global Constitutionalism, Journal of the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (2019) (exploring the importance of constructive exchanges between and among international constitutional law and global constitutionalism)
12. Jenna Sapiano, Peace Settlements and Human Rights, in Mark Retter, Andrea Varga and Marc Weller (eds.) International Law and Peace Settlements (forthcoming 2020) (arguing that since neither peace nor human rights are absolute, it is possible to weigh the two against each other)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. Democratic Decay & Renewal (DEM-DEC) issued its twelfth Global Research Update on democratic decay (July 2019), containing new research worldwide from June-late July 2019; items suggested by DEM-DEC users; a rapidly expanding list of forthcoming research; and a list of new resources added to the Links section. A post introducing the Update will be published on the IACL-AIDC Blog on Friday August 2, and will shortly be published on Verfassungsblog.
2. The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism invites submissions for its conference on “Constitution-Making and Constitutional Change” to be held at the University of Texas Law School on January 17-18, 2020. The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2019.
3. The Younger Comparativists Committee (YCC) of the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL) solicits nominations, including self-nominations, for the annual Richard M. Buxbaum Prize for Teaching in Comparative Law. Early stage scholars in a tenure-track position at an ASCL Member Institution are eligible to apply. Nominations should be made by September 1, 2019.
4. The Younger Comparativists Committee (YCC) of the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL) invites submissions from emerging scholars for a panel at the ASCL’s annual meeting to be held at the University of Missouri Law School in Columbia, Missouri, on October 17-19, 2019. The deadline for submissions is August 10, 2019.
5. The West Virginia Law Review invites submissions for its annual Legal Symposium issue, to be held on February 27-28, 2020. The deadline for submission of abstracts is September 3, 2019.
6. The Younger Comparativists Committee (YCC) of the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL) invites submissions for its fifth workshop on comparative business and financial law to be held on February 7-8, 2020, at the University of Akron School of Law. The deadline for submissions is October 25, 2019.
7. The Department of Law at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business welcomes proposals for its first Zagreb International Conference on the Law of Obligations, to be held on December 12-13, 2019. The deadline for submission of abstracts is October 1.
8. The Research Group on International Law and Governance at the University of Oslo, Faculty of Law and the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) organize a conference to advance discussions on the gaps and challenges in law related to the protection of oceans. The conference will be held in Oslo, on November 4-5, 2019.
9. Registration is now open for the Central States Law Schools Association 2019 Scholarship Conference, which will be held on September 20-21, at the University of Toledo College of Law.
10. A call for papers has been issued for the 2020 ESIL Research Forum will take place at the University of Catania, in Italy, on April 23-24, 2020.
11. The Milan-Bicocca, Excellence Department, Law and Pluralism invites applications for a fellowship opportunity to spend two to three months at the University of Milan-Bicocca, School of Law.

Elsewhere Online

1. The Constitutional Court of Armenia Is in Disarray, MassisPost
2. Jonathan Bench, Cryptocurrency in China: A Primer, China Law Blog
3. Edmund LaCour, The Supreme Court turns against novel or late-breaking execution challenges, SCOTUS Blog
4. Marty Lederman, Can Congress Investigate Whether the President Has Conflicts of Interest, is Compromised by Russia, or Has Violated the Law?, Balkinization
5. Gráinne O’Callaghan , Barry Magee and Zoe Richardson, Is there a Constitutional Entitlement to a Bilingual Judge?, Lexology
6. Robert Reich, The Real Reason for Impeachment, The American Prospect
7. Damon Linker, The incoherence at the heart of Trumpist nationalism, The Week
8. Sándor Lénárd, Interview: Investment treaties endanger sovereign capacities – conversation with Professor Gus Van Harten, Precedens.Mandiner
9. David R. Cameron, What British voters think about Boris Johnson, the Conservatives and Brexit, Yale Macmillan Center
10. Maja Sahadzic, Bosnia and Herzegovina Approaching European Union Membership, Eureka
11. Stephen Gardbaum, Prime Minister of the 0.3 Per Centers, Brexit Institute
12. Maxime St-Hilaire, Affaire Boulerice c. Chambre des communes: conclusion, Blogue Aquide Droit