What’s New in Public Law

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–Pedro Arcain Riccetto, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford.

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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 ruled that employers cannot fire employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
2. The Central African Republic’s Constitutional Court rejected a bid to extend President Faustin-Archange Touadera’s mandate.
3. The Constitutional Court of Taiwan struck down an 85-year-old law criminalizing adultery.
4. The South African Constitutional Court ruled the Electoral Act unconstitutional, opening doors for independent candidates to stand for election.
5. The US Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Executive cannot immediately end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on immigration.
6. The Supreme Court of Brazil ruled constitutional a procedure started by its Chief Justice to investigate fake news and threats against the Supreme Court, its Justices and family members.
7. The French Constitutional Council struck down most parts of a hate speech law for undermining freedom of expression and communication.

In the News

1. Russia will vote constitutional reform that may extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule on July 1.
2. The Egyptian House of Representatives approved a bill guaranteeing appropriate representation for workers, farmers, youth, Christians, expatriates, and people with special needs in the House.
3. The German Parliament’s Lower House approved law forcing social media platforms to proactively report serious cases of hate speech to authorities.
4. In the Gambia, the draft of a new constitution restricts presidential mandates to two terms.
5. Prime Minister Nikol Pashynian said Armenia should adopt a new constitution to abolish the Constitutional Court.

New Scholarship

1. Asli Ozcelik and Tarik Olcay, (Un)constitutional Change Rooted in Peace Agreements (2020), 18 International Journal of Constitutional Law (analyzing the relationship between peace agreements and the ‘unconstitutionality challenge’ to peace reforms)
2. Joel Colón-Rios, Constituent Power and the Law (2020) (examining the relationship between constituent power and the law in constitutional history).
3. Justin T. Callais and Andrew T. Young, Does Rigidity Matter? Constitutional Entrenchment and Growth (2020) (estimating the effect of constitutional rigidity on economic growth).
4. Liora Lazarus, Constitutional Scholars as Constitutional Actors (2020 forthcoming) Federal Law Review 2020 (exploring the idea of constitutional scholars as analogous to integrity institutions).
5. María Dolores Sánchez Galera, Educational and Cultural Challenges of the European Union Sustainability Model. Breaking Down Silos in the Legal Domain (2020) (examining the overlooked importance of cultural and educational public policies for our sustainability model).
6. Myriam Hunter-Henin, Why Religious Freedom Matters for Democracy: Comparative Reflections from Britain and France for a Democratic “Vivre Emsemble” (2020) (presents a normative democratic approach to how judges should decide cases where religious freedom is disputed).
7. Richard H. Pildes, The Constitutional Emergency Powers of Federal Courts (2020) (situating the emergency powers of federal courts in the pandemic)
8. Roberto Gargarella and Jorge Roa Roa, Democratic Dialogue and Emergency in Latin America (2020) (presenting concerns on the measures adopted in Latin America to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic)
9. Silje Langvatn, Mattias Kumm, and Wojciech Sadurski (eds.), Public Reason and Courts (2020) (presenting contributions from scholars in philosophy and law to connect ideas of public justification and public reason to the practices of constitutional and international courts).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and the journal “Theory and Practice in Legislation” invites all to a series of three webinars on Global Legislative Responses to Coronavirus starting on June 30, 2020. Participation is free but requires registration.
2. The Eurac Research Institute for Comparative Federalism invites applications for the Federal Scholar in Residence Program 2021. Applications may be submitted by July 1, 2020.
3. The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism invites all to register for the online course “Judging in Times of Crisis: Conversations with High Court Judges around the World,” featuring Supreme and Constitutional Court judges from Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, and Taiwan.
4. The Fulbright US Scholar Program is accepting applications for postdoctoral and early career awards for Latin America. Fellowships are available throughout the region and do not require institutional affiliation. Applications for the 2020-2021 academic year are due September 20, 2020.
5. The Law for Black Lives made available a series of webinars discussing a range of topics in race and law, including states of emergency, immigration, queer theory and decarceration.
6. The Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies is calling for applications for five PhD in Law positions (with scholarship), one of which is reserved for candidates who obtained their qualification at non-Italian universities. The application deadline is September 3, 2020.

Elsewhere Online

1. Andrew Koppelman, The dangerous Kavanaugh dissent in Bostock, Balkinization.
2. Aymen Briki, Inherited Confusion: COVID-19, Tunisian democracy, and the adoption of the French doctrine, Verfassungsblog.
3. David R. Cameron, EU and UK leaders agree on intensified negotiation of future relationship, Yale McMillan Center blog.
4. Francis Kofi Korankye-Sakyi, The role of international financial Institutions in protecting the vulnerable during pandemics: focus on World Bank in developing countries, AfricLAW.
5. Tamar Hostovsky Brandes, Constitutional adjudication of International Law violations: the Israeli Supreme Court’s invalidation of the Settlement Regularization Law, Verfassungsblog.
6. Zarizana Abdul Aziz, Gender-based violence courts in Pakistan: a gap in gender equality remains, but a promising start, Oxford Human Rights Hub Blog.