What’s New in Public Law

–Nausica Palazzo, Lecturer in Public Law, Bocconi University

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. UK Supreme Court is to rule next week on Parliament shutdown.
2. The Court of Justice of the EU started hearing Apple and Ireland’s appeal against the EU Commission’s 14 billion tax bill.
3. Romania’s Constitutional Court ruled that the President of the Republic must accept the nominations of interim ministers by PM Dancila, as within the PM’s prerogatives.
4. Turkey Constitutional Court ruled that the broadcast ban on news related to the criminal investigation against former ministers violates freedom of press.
5. The Constitutional Court of Thailand dismissed a constitutional challenge against the PM for his failure to recite the full oath, especially the sentence whereby he commits himself to abide by the constitution.
6. The Nelson Mandela Foundation lodged a constitutional complaint against AfriForum’s “provocative” tweet of an apartheid flag, whose display constitutes hate speech following last week’s Equality Court’s decision.
7. The Constitutional Court of Jordan ruled that a contract entered by a national company and Israel does not require parliamentary approval.
8. The Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that parents cannot use corporal punishment at home.
9. Zimbabwe’s law on the functioning of the Constitutional Court, implementing the 2013 constitution, goes into effect.
10. The President of Albania explains to the Venice Commission the reasons for the 18 months long inactivity of the Constitutional Court.

In the News

1. Turkey, Russia and Iran announced that an agreement on the committee that will rewrite Syria’s constitution was reached.
2. Algeria’s interim president called the presidential elections with a view to overcoming the political crisis.
3. The ICC prosecutor appealed the ICC’s decision to acquit former Ivory Coast president, accused of starting a civil war after losing the elections. Notice of appeal here.
4. An Armenian court rejects former President Kocharian’s motion to end pretrial detention.
5. Former Italy’s PM Renzi formed a breakaway party, thereby potentially engendering the stability of the new coalition government.
6. Liberia’s President endorses a war crimes court to investigate the crimes committed during Liberia’s civil wars.
7. The US sued Snowden for breaking non-disclosure agreement with CIA and NSA when writing his book.
8. New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern introduced a bill to strengthen the nation’s gun laws, after the Christchurch attacks.
9. A US same-sex couple sued the US State Department for treating them as “unmarried” thereby denying their child, born in Canada through surrogacy, US citizenship.

New Scholarship

1. Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, Xavier Groussot, The Future of Europe: Political and Legal Integration Beyond Brexit (Hart Publishing, 2019) (addressing the institutional challenges ahead for the European Union, with a special focus on rule of law and security)
2. Alysia Blackham, Miriam Kullmann, Ania Zbyszewska, Theorising Labour Law in a Changing World: Towards Inclusive Labour Law (Hart Publishing, 2019) (providing a more inclusive theory of labor law by bringing together various disciplines, including industrial relations, political economy, gender studies and regulatory theory)
3. Ingrid V. Eagly, The Movement to Decriminalize Border Crossing, 61 Boston College Law Review (forthcoming) (exploring the growing resistance to border criminalization in the United States and the proposed reforms that would reconstitute border crossing as a civil violation of immigration law)
4. Laura M. Henderson, The Promise and Peril of Designing a Radical Democratic Populism, in Ingeborg van der Geest, Henrike Jansen & Bart van Klink (eds.), Vox Populi: Populism as a Rhetorical and Democratic Challenge (Edgar Elgar, forthcoming) (analyzing radical democracy’s turn to a populist rhetorical strategy, and what populist politics should do to be compatible with radical democracy)
5. Andras Jakab, What Can Constitutional Law Do Against the Erosion of Democracy and the Rule of Law? On the Interconnectedness of the Protection of Democracy and the Rule of Law Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law (MPIL) Research Paper No. 2019-15. (presenting a list of tips and tricks on how to stop the populist tide through constitutional law)
6. Zachary Kramer, Outsiders: Why Difference is the Future of Civil Rights (Oxford University Press, 2019) (advancing two proposals to align civil rights law to increasingly individualized forms of discrimination)
7. Lorne Neudorf, Separating Powers through the Constitution: A Comparison of India and Australia (2019) (examining the separation of powers in India and Australia to better understand the idea of separating powers more generally, especially in relation to how it takes shape and operates in different legal systems)
8. Lewis D. Sargentich, Liberal Legality: A Unified Theory of our Law (Cambridge University Press, 2019) (exploring what rule-based law and policy-based law have in common and proposing a novel conception of the rule of law based on a commitment to what the Author calls “liberal legality”)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Constitution Unit set up a Working Group on unification referendums on the Island of Ireland examining how any future referendum on Northern Ireland’s status would be conducted. The members of the Working Group are keen to hear from anyone with views on the matters they are examining.
2. UCD Sutherland School of Law is seeking one post-doctoral fellow and six PhD students for a forthcoming European Research Council-funded project on the socio-political factors leading to populism in selected case studies. The deadline for the post-doc position is September 27, 2019. The deadline for PhD positions Oct. 1, 2019.
3. Emory University School of Law seeks to fill a named professorship in international law beginning in the 2020-2021 academic year. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.
4. European University Institute seeks to hire a Director for its School of Transnational Governance (deadline for receipt of applications: October 30, 2019) and chairs in transnational governance (deadline for receipt of applications: October 28, 2019).
5. The Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center is seeking applicants for two tenure-track appointments to its full-time faculty starting in August 2020. Subject areas of particular interest include Constitutional Law, Evidence, Property, and Torts. The application must be submitted here.
6. The Common Market Law Review invites scholars to attend the conference “A Cultural and Identity-related Shift in European Union Law?”, to be held on October 11, 2019 in Paris. The conference program can be found here.
7. The Federalist Society launched this year’s Article I Initiative Writing Contest on the on Nondelegation Doctrine in the United States. The contest is open to individuals under age 40. Entries must be received on or before Monday, January 7, 2020.
8. The editor of the book “Personal Data Protection and Legal Developments in the European Union” (Maria Tzanou) issued a call for chapters. The book will be published by IGI Global, an international publisher of progressive academic research. The deadline to submit chapter proposals is October 18, 2019.

Elsewhere Online

1. Brian Christopher Jones, Panel Numbers: From “Court Packing” to “Institution Building”, UK Constitutional Law Blog
2. Sepideh Afshar, Bill 21: Impractical on paper and in practice, The McGill Tribune
3. Supreme Court challenge over Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament, Channel 4 News on Youtube
4. Mike Eckel, Change the Russian Constitution? Might Be a Good Idea, Says Putin Confidant, Radio Free Europe
5. Erik Røsæg, Maritime rescue operations in the Mediterranean, PluriCourts Blog
6. Makena Kelly, Facebook’s ‘Supreme Court’ can overrule Zuckerberg, per new charter, The Verge
7. Tom Hals, Kristina Cooke, Explainer: U.S. enacts sweeping new asylum bar following Supreme Court decision, Reuters
8. Kees Sterk, Frans van Dijk, Protecting the Independence of National Councils of the Judiciary on the EU Level, Verfassungsblog
9. Tomiwa Ilori, A human rights approach to internet taxes in Africa, AfricLaw
10. Alexandra Tomaselli & L. Mariana Olvera Colin, What’s next to preserve the linguistic richness of Indigenous Peoples?, Völkerrechtsblog
11. Andrea McArdle, The Fair Housing Act in the Trump Era: A Proposed Agency Rule Will Seriously Dilute Disparate-Impact Liability, OxHRH Blog
12. Estera Flieger, The populist rewriting of Polish history is a warning to us all, The Guardian
13. Maria Chr. Alvanou, 9/11 Trials Will Shape Global Terrorism, Jurist