What’s New in Public Law

—Claudia Marchese, Research Fellow in Comparative Public Law at the University of Florence (Italy)

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Turkish Constitutional Court’s decision n. 2017/22355 dated 26 December 2019 on the violation of the applicants’ freedom of speech determined by the blocked access to Wikipedia, was published in the Official Gazette on January 15, 2020.
2. The Colombian Constitutional Court ordered the country’s ministry of justice, the Office of the Attorney General and health professionals to provide a justification for the criminalization of abortion in Colombia.
3. Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled that key figures of the opposition Future Forward Party are not guilty of opposing the monarchy.
4. The Chilean Constitutional Tribunal stated the inadmissibility of filing a claim questioning the constitutionality of the National Institute for Human Rights’ legitimacy to lodge complaints against the crimes of torture.
5. The Italian Constitutional Court by means of a deliberation, dated 8 January 2020, admitted all non-profit social groups and all institutional bodies representing collective or diffuse interests relevant to the questions discussed to present brief written opinions, thus providing the Court with information that may be useful in understanding and evaluating the case before it.

In the News

1. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has submitted a package of numerous constitutional amendments to Parliament.
2. Lawyers of President Trump during the impeachment trial, tried to emphasize that the House of Representatives had never accused the President of committing an ordinary crime, so that the accuse of abuse of power could collapse.
3. The Iowa Senate Republicans launched a resolution to modify the Iowa Constitution establishing that it is not recognized or secured a right to abortion and it is not possible to use public funding for abortion.
4. The Commonwealth of Virginia voted on 15 January 2020 to amend the U.S. Constitution, so becoming the 38^th and final state needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment which prohibits gender discrimination.
5. On 8 January 2020 the new Montenegro law on Religious Freedom came into force. This law led to tensions between Montenegro and Serbia.

New Scholarship

1. J. Chaisse, Sixty Years of European Integration and Global Power Shifts (forthcoming in 2020) (providing a critical analysis of the key features of the EU integration and how this integration is perceived).
2. D. Popovic, Comparative Government (2019) (comparative analysis of the contemporary systems of government).
3. K.R. Richards, J.V. Zeben (eds.), Policy Instruments in Environmental Law (forthcoming in 2020) (providing a comprehensive guide to environmental policy instruments).
4. J.M. Scherpe, C. Fenton Glynn, T. Kaan (eds.), Eastern and Western Perspectives on Surrogacy (2019) (analysing the approach of 21 different jurisdictions in Eastern and Western countries to surrogacy).
5. J.N. Stefanelli, Judicial Review of Immigration Detention in the UK, US and EU (2020) (examining judgements issued by the lower courts of two jurisdictions, the UK and the US, concerning detention of immigrants).

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Law and Rights section of the German Political Science association welcomes submissions for their next conference on “Autocratic Constitutionalism” to be held on 28-30 May 2020 at Free University Berlin. Abstracts of no more than 300 words must be submitted by 1 February 2020. 
2. The International Association of Constitutional Law welcomes proposals addressing “Constitutional Identity: Contemporary Issues and Challenges” for the roundtable that will be held in St. Petersburg (Russia) on 10-13 June 2020. Applicants are required to submit their CV and abstracts in English by  23 March 2020.
3. The Australian National University (ANU) College of Law will host a conference on 8and 9 December 2020 on “Public Law and Inequalities”. The deadline for abstracts is 2 March 2020.
4. Law, Technology and Humans, a new international peer-reviewed journal, invites submissions for its Volume 2, Issue 1. The deadline for submission of articles is 10 February 2020.
5. The University of Bristol Law School will host the 2020 British Association of Comparative Law (BACL) Postgraduate research workshop on Comparative Law on 23 and 24 April 2020. Doctoral students interested in participating should submit an abstract by 14 February 2020.
6. The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law together with the Tilburg Sustainability Centre will host a workshop in Tilburg University on 10 September 2020 entitled “Enhancing Urban Climate Resilience: the role of law”. Everyone interested can submit an abstract by 2 March 2020.
7. Forced Migration Review Issue 64 – to be published in June 2020 – will include a feature on human trafficking and smuggling. The deadline for submission of articles is 17 February 2020.

Elsewhere Online

1. D.R. Cameron, Spanish Supreme Court challenges European Court of Justice over Junqueras immunity, Yale MacMillan Centre
2. R. Bauböck, Cities vs. States: should urban citizenship be emancipated from nationality?, Verfassungsblog
3. C. Tecimer, Why the Turkish Constitutional Court’s Wikipedia Decision is no reason to celebrate, Verfassungsblog
4. J.S. Caird, The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill and the Rule of Law, UKCLA
5. A. Sinclair, J. Tomlinson, Brexit delegated legislation: problematic results, UKCLA
6. J. Borneman, Threats to public security in EU immigration law: finding the right discretion, EULawBlog
7. M. Reuchamps, Belgium’s experiment in permanent forms of deliberative democracy, ConstitutionNet
8. A. Slavov, Bulgaria’s Balancing Act: Judicial and Prosecutorial Independence and Accountability, ConstitutionNet