What’s New in Public Law

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—Vini Singh, Assistant Professor & Doctoral Research Scholar, National Law University Jodhpur, India.

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 Colombian Constitutional Court ruled against legalizing abortion in the first sixteen weeks of pregnancy.
2. The Supreme Court of the UK held that a refugee can pursue a claim for damages against the government for illegal detention.
3. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that mining company Nevsun can be sued in Canada for alleged human rights violations abroad
4. The Ukraine Constitutional Court declared that the abolition of the old Supreme Court was unconstitutional.
5. The German Constitutional Court upheld the right to self – determined death and declared the ban on professionally assisted suicide as unconstitutional.
6. The Constitutional Court of Germany upheld a ban on wearing a headscarf for legal trainees.

In the News

1. The President of Argentina proposes legalizing abortion.
2. U.S. Supreme Court takes up the most high profile abortion case in decades.
3. Guinea’s President postpones vote on a new constitution and parliamentary elections over international concerns.
4. United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights files intervention application in the Supreme Court of India on the Citizenship Amendment Act.
5. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims the biggest win in Israel elections.
6. Spain plans “only yes means yes” rape law.
7. President Putin proposes amendments to the Russian Constitution that will proclaim Russian’s faith in God and define marriage as a union between a man and woman.

New Scholarship

1. Hedvig Bernitz and Victoria Enkvist, Freedom of Religion: An Ambiguous Right in the Contemporary European Legal Order (2020) (examining different perspectives on the concept of freedom of religion in Europe against the background of the European Convention on Human Rights, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and other international human rights treaties)
2. Rachel Cahill-O’Callaghan, Values in the Supreme Court: Decisions, Division and Diversity (2020) (empirically examining the significance of values in the decision-making of the UK Supreme Court)
3. Abhinav Chandrachud, Secularism and the Citizenship Amendment Act (2020) (examining provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act against the backdrop of the citizenship provisions of the Indian Constitution)
4. Giacomo Delledone, Giuseppe Martinico, Matteo Monti and Fabio Pacini, Italian Populism and Constitutional Law: Strategies, Conflicts and Dilemmas, (2020) (exploring the relationship between constitutionalism and populism in the Italian context)
5. Jill I. Goldenziel, Law as a Battlefield: The U.S., China and Global Escalation of Lawfare, (2020) (arguing that the US needs to develop a lawfare strategy to combat its adversaries.)
6. Salman Khurshid, Sidharth Luthra, Lokendra Malik and Shruti Bedi, Judicial Review: Process, Powers and Problems (Essays in the Honour of Upendra Baxi), (2020) (demonstrating the different facets of judicial review based on the vast area of comparative constitutional law)
7. Karl M. Manheim and Lyric Kaplan, Artificial Intelligence: Risks to Privacy and Democracy, 21 Yale Journal of Law & Technology (2019) (arguing for greater attention to risks and impacts of AI on economic and political decisions at the national level, with attendant regulation)

Calls for papers and announcements

1. Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, at the University of Oxford, invites application for the position of an Associate Professor. The deadline for applications is April 2, 2020.
2. Nordic Journal of European Law invites submissions, including articles, case notes and book reviews, related to issues closely connected to European law developments for inclusion in the next issue. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2020.
3. Lund University invites applications for two general PhD positions and one PhD position with the Quantum Law project, which explores the legal implications of quantum computing. The deadline for applications for all three openings is on March 18, 2020.
4. The School of Advanced Studies, University of London invites submissions for its workshop “Facing the Anthropocene in Latin America: Stories, Agencies and Institutions,” to be held on April 28, 2020. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is Monday, March 9, 2020.
5. The Lund University, Sweden invites submission for a conference on “Law and Digital Society: Reimagining the Futures,” to be held on August 24-26, 2020. The deadline for the submission of papers and proposals is March 15, 2020.
6. The Graduate Law Students Association, McGill University’s Faculty of Law, welcomes submissions for the 13th Annual McGill Graduate Law Conference on the theme “Law Actually: Intimacy and Trust,” to be held on May 7-8, 2020. The deadline for submissions has been extended until March 10, 2020.
7. The LVI 2020: Legal Information and Access to Justice, to e held on September 15-16, 2020, will be hosted by the Institute of Advanced Legal studies, University of London and BAILII.
8. Registrations are open for the ACS Conference on the topic “Reviving Democratic Constitutionalism,” to be held March 20-21, 2020.
9. The National University of Singapore invites applications for the position of Assistant Professor in Media Law & Policy. Applications may be submitted by September 19, 2020.
10. The Central European University will conduct a summer course on Constitution Building in Africa from June 29, 2020, to July 8, 2020. The deadline for applications has been extended until March 15, 2020.

Elsewhere Online

1. Gabriel Armas Cardona, Context Matters: The Rule of Law and Armenia’s Referendum to Remove Constitutional Court Judges, Verfassungsblog
2. Leonid Sirota, A Matter of Unwritten Principle, Double Aspect
3. National Constitution Center, Dred Scott Decision Still Resonates Today, Constitution Daily
4. Jim Gallagher, The Scottish Referendum Argument, Centre for Constitutional Change
5. Gautam Bhatia, Proving Citizenship: Lessons from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
6. Simon Drugda, Behind the Scenes of Brexit: An Inside Look on the Work of UK Supreme Court, DCU Brexit Institute