–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 US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two landmark cases concerning LGBTQ+ employment rights.
(2) The Constitutional Court of Guatemala issued a provisional injunction to stop a controversial commission of inquiry into the work of a United Nations-backed anti-corruption body.
(3) The Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that former PM’s constitutional right of freedom of speech and expression has been violated.
(4) The Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that an electric shock after touching the door of a transformer building constitutes a violation of the right to life.
(5) The Constitutional Court of South Africa held that a university policy which gives preference to English over Afrikaans is constitutional.
In the News
(1) The US House of Representatives introduces a bill to deter foreign interference in elections.
(2) Ghana will hold a referendum on a constitutional amendment allowing political parties to participate in district elections
(3) The Parliament of Azerbaijan approves the appointment of a new Prime Minister.
(4) Lawmakers in Costa Rica reject a proposal to cut the second round of voting in presidential elections.
(5) The Parliament of Italy voted to decrease the number of representatives in both houses.
New Scholarship
(1) Richard Albert, Menaka Guruswamy, and Nishchal Basnyat (eds), Founding Moments in Constitutionalism (2019) (theorizing and illustrating the phenomenon of a constitutional founding moment)
(2) Juan C. Herrera, Binding Consent of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: An Example of Transformative Constitutionalism, in Claire Wright and Alexandra Tomaselli (eds), The Prior Consultation of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America: Inside the Implementation Gap (2019) (highlighting several limitations on the rights and mechanisms imply for Indigenous people)
(3) Richard Schragger and Micah Schwartzman, Establishment Clause Inversion in the Bladensburg Cross Case, ACS Supreme Court Review 2018-2019 (arguing that American Legion represents a significant development in the dismantling of Establishment Clause jurisprudence)
(4) P. Takis Tridimas, and Giulia Gentile, The Essence of Rights: An Unreliable Boundary?, 20 German Law Journal (2019) (examining the essence clause of the Charter in light of the ECJ case law and the constitutional traditions of the Member States and assesses its role in the framework of fundamental rights protection in EU law)
(5) Martin Krčmář, Personal Liability for Anticompetitive Conduct in the Context of the Trade Agreement between EU and Colombia, Peru and Ecuador (2019) (providing specific examples of the decision-making practices adopted by the competition authorities which have focused on identifying the attribution of company representatives’ conduct)
(6) Cass R. Sunstein, Behaviorally Informed Policy: A Brisk Progress Report (2019) (offering a progress report on behaviorally informed policy and law, while also providing some conceptual clarifications)
(7) Rafael Domingo, The Individual in Contemporary Sacred Natural Law, in Anne Peter and Tom Sparks (eds), The Individual in International Law. History and Theory (2021) (arguing for the adequacy and consistency of a human-centred international law framework from the perspective of the so-called sacred natural law theories)
(8) Gregory M. Dickinson, A Computational Analysis of Oral Argument in the Supreme Court, 28 Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy (2019) (introducing a construct predictive models of judicial decision making based not on oral argument’s superficial features or factors external to oral argument)
(9) Melissa Crouch, The Constitution of Myanmar: A Contextual Analysis (2019) (describing how the process of constitution-making and the substance of the 2008 Constitution contribute to its lack of credibility and fuel demands for reform)
(10) Graham Butler, Constitutional Law of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy: Competence and Institutions in External Relations (2019) (arguing that the legal framework for EU foreign affairs must adapt to allow for a more assertive Europe in the world)
Call for Papers and Announcements
(1) Deakin Law School hosts a conference on “The Future of Freedom of Speech and Religion after Israel Folau,” to investigate significant aspects of the Folau matter and its implications for Australian law and society on December 7, 2019, at the Law Institute of Victoria, in Melbourne.
(2) The University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski,” Faculty of Law and the Sofia Legal Science Network welcome submissions for the IV Sofia Legal Science Week on “Law and Revolution.”
(3) The 2020 ESIL Research Forum will take place on April 23-24, 2020, at the Department of Law, University of Catania, Italy. The ESIL Research Forum is a scholarly conference that promotes engagement with research in progress by members of the Society. It has a small and intensive format. The Forum targets scholars at an early stage of their careers.
(4) The University of Portsmouth Law School will host the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference 2020 to be held from Wednesday April 1-3, 2020.
(5) A Call for Applications has been issued for an early career researchers’ workshop on “Convergence and Differentiation in European and Comparative Administrative Law,” to be held on February 14, 2020, in Brussels. The deadline for application is 15th December.
Elsewhere online
(1) Gaurav Mukherjee, Miller/Cherry 2 Goes to Kashmir, Verfassungsblog
(2) Adrian Waters, Will the reduction of legislators fix Italian democracy?, ConstitutionNet
(3) Gerard Magliocca, Not A Constitutional Crisis Yet, PrawfsBlawg
(4) Daniel Tavela Luís and Luís Antônio G. de Andrade, A New Path For Public Utility Expropriations Disputes In Brazil: Arbitration And Mediation, Kluwer Arbitration Blog
(5) Lucy Ferriss, It’s 2040. We Need to Keep Abortion Legal in New York, The New York Times
(6) A Practical Guide to Constitution Building: Decentralized Forms of Government, ConstitutionNet
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