What’s New in Public Law

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—Chiara Graziani, Ph.D. Candidate and Research Fellow in 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 Human Rights held that Finnish decision to deport an Iraqi man who was killed when he arrived back in his country of origin violated arts. 2 and 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights. 
2. The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice ordered Ireland to pay pecuniary penalties for not carrying out environmental assessment in respect of a wind farm.
3. The UK Supreme Court ruled that, before completion of a criminal proceeding, no one shall reveal or publish the names of the appellants or any information potentially leading to their identification.
4. The US Supreme Court will rule on the White House’s efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act, as part of an immigration crackdown.
5. The US Supreme Court heard a racial discrimination case against Comcast.
6. The Supreme Court of India delayed a ruling on ban on women entering Hindu temple.
7. The Supreme Court of Singapore heard a case challenging the constitutionality of a colonial-era law punishing male homosexual acts.

In the News

1. The US House of Representatives began public hearings into allegations against President Donald Trump.
2. Royal Mail won a court action to block planned postal strikes in the run-up to Christmas.
3. In Spain, the Socialist Party won the most of votes at General Election, but fell short of a majority.
4. A Belgian court recognized the right to publish pictures of police officers performing their duties in public spaces.
5. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected President Trump’s attempt to keep his financial record private.
6. A resolution of the European Parliament condemned the criminalization of sex education by a Polish draft law.
7. The leader of the Brexit Party, Nigel Farage, confirmed that his party will stand in all Labour-held seats at next month’s General Elections.

New Scholarship

1. Zoltan Barany, Sumit Bisarya, Sujit Choudhry, Richard Stacey (eds.), Security Sector Reform in Constitutional Transitions (2019) (providing an introduction to security sector reform, including case-studies and hints to emerging democracies)
2. Christian Bumke, Andreas Voßkuhle (eds.) (translated by Andrew Hammel), German Constitutional Law (2019) (offering a comprehensive analysis of the case law of the German Federal Constitutional Court, with specific focus on fundamental rights, state structure, European integration)
3. Stephen Gardbaum, The Counter-Play Book: Resisting the Populist Assault on Separation of Powers (2019) (arguing that, since populism undermines institutional checks and balances, constitutional democracies shall be protected through the application of an anti-concentration principle that prevents the separation of powers from being dismantled)
4. Benjamin J. Goold, Liora Lazarus (eds.), Security and Human Rights (2019) (collecting essays from leading academics and practitioners in several fields of law, shedding light on the challenging relationship between security and rights)
5. Karen J. Greenberg (ed.), Reimagining the National Security State. Liberalism on the Brink (2019) (providing a comprehensive picture of the US government’s policies and laws enacted in the name of the war on terror, taking into account historical, legal, political and theoretical issues)
6. Christopher Kuner, Lee A. Bygrave, Christopher Docksey, Laura Drechsler (eds.), The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): A Commentary (2019) (providing an article-by-article commentary of Regulation (UE) 2016/679 and including, among authors, a variety of specialists who represent different categories of stakeholders)
7. David Landau, Hanna Lerner (eds.), Comparative Constitution Making (2019) (analysing constitution making around the world and exploring debates on constitutionalism)
8. Lee J. Strang, Originalism’s Promise. A Natural Law Account of the American Constitution (2019) (analysing the originalist interpretation of the American Constitution and giving account of the debate between originalist and non-originalist theories)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The online platform Democratic Decay & Renewal (DEM-DEC) released its latest Global Research Update (October 2019 – available here), containing new research worldwide from October 2019; items suggested by DEM-DEC users; a list of forthcoming research; and new additions to the Resources Database. The Update Editorial was published on Verfassungsblog on Wednesday, November 13, and will be published shortly on the IACL-AIDC Blog.
2. The London School of Economics and Political Sciences is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor in Technology Law and Regulation. Applications close on November 18, 2019.
3. The Law and Society Association calls for submission of abstracts for its 2020 Conference, to be held in Denver, Colorado (USA) on May 28-31, 2020. Abstracts can be submitted until November 20, 2019.
4. The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law welcomes the submission of abstracts for the Workshop “Contested norms of international peace and security law”, to be held in Heidelberg, Germany, on May 7-8, 2020. Abstract should be submitted no later than November 24, 2019.
5. The Associazione Italiana di Diritto Comparato and the American Society of Comparative Law – Younger Comparativist Committee invite submissions for the “Trans-Atlantic Young Scholars Conference” on “New Topics and Methods in Comparative Law Research”, to be held in Perugia, Italy, on June 5-6, 2020. Abstracts are due no later than December 10, 2019. 
6. The University of Aberdeen is seeking to appoint a Chair in Comparative Law. Applications close on December 13, 2019.
7. The University College London (UCL) invites applications for a Distinguished Visiting Professorship for the academic year 2020-2021. The deadline for submissions is December 20, 2019.

Elsewhere Online

1. Armin von Bogdandy, Fundamentals on Defending European Values, Verfassungsblog
2. David R. Cameron, Spain goes to the poll for fourth time in four years – and again no party has a majority, Yale MacMillan Center
3. Jorge Contesse, A Constitution Borne Out of Actual Bullets: A Reply to Sergio Verdugo, Verfassungsblog
4. Adam Feldman, Empirical SCOTUS: The recent role of separate opinions, SCOTUS Blog
5. Seamus Hughes, Devorah Margolin, The Fractured Terrorism Threat to America, Lawfare
6. Dimitrios Kyriazis, Playing Chess like Commissioner Vestager, EU Law Blog
7. Sergio Verdugo, The Chilean Political Crisis and Constitutions as Magic Bullets: How to Replace the Chilean Constitution?, Verfassungsblog