What’s New in Public Law

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—Matteo Mastracci, PhD Researcher, Koç University, Istanbul

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. France’s Constitutional Council struck down the main provisions of the Avia law forcing online platforms to delete hate-speech contents.
2. Mexico’s Supreme Court rejected a proposal that could have paved the way for the decriminalization of abortion across the country.
3. The Constitutional Court of Bulgaria dismissed two cases concerning amendments to the Health Act and the Cabinet investigations of the Prosecutor General.
4. The Constitutional Court of Turkey rejected CHP opposition party’s appeal against multiple bar associations law.
5. The European Court of Human Rights refused to apply an interim measure in the case concerning constitutional reform in Armenia.
6. The Portuguese Constitutional Court ruled on the relationship between EU law and the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic clarifying the principle of primacy and the legal orders’ reciprocal limitations.

In the News

1. Kyrgyzstan’s lawmakers passed a draft legislation which would allow to censure online information by cutting off websites and social media accounts without a court ruling. 
2. Malta’s political forces agreed on constitutional amendments which will give greater powers to the President and change the method of appointment of the Head of State.
3. On 29 July, the Turkish parliament approved AKP’s bill that strengthens control over social media companies.
4. The acquittal of two right-to-die activists in Italy might push the Italian Constitutional Court to declare the unconstitutionality of Article 580 of the Italian Penal Code and to legalize the physician-assisted suicide.
5. The Albanian Parliament approved a motion to not impeach President Meta for serious violations of the constitution.
6. The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Council for Reforms of Ukraine proposed a nationwide referendum over the disbanding of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
7. The Constitutional Court of Romania will rule on the law establishing a minimum income for a decent living.
8. The Italian Senate and the Chamber of Deputies approved the government extension of the state of emergency in the country over coronavirus till October 15.
9. The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs agreed to discuss a legislative proposal to establish a Constitutional Court in Pakistan following the model of the U.S. Supreme Court.

New Scholarship

1. Richard Albert, Trudeau’s Threat: The Referendum at Patriation (2020) (recovering the history of Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s threat to use a referendum to patriate the Canadian Constitution in 1982).
2. Andrew Koppelman, Gay Rights vs. Religious Liberty? (2020) (addressing theoretical and practical queries on the conflict between gay rights and religious liberty)
3. David Pozen and Kim Lane Scheppele, Executive Underreach, in Pandemics and Otherwise (forthcoming 2020) (introducing the phenomenon of executive underreach as a new form of illiberalism in reference to the COVID-19 crisis)
4. Edward A. Purcell Jr., Antonin Scalia and American Constitutionalism (2020) (examining whether Scalia’s judgments were consistent with his jurisprudential theories)
5. Giuliano Amato, Benedetta Barbisan and Cesare Pinelli, Rule of Law vs Majoritarian Democracy (forthcoming 2021) (exploring tensions and paradoxes of ROL, electoral democracy and illiberal political movements in selected Western countries)
6. Jorge M. Farinacci- Fernós, Original Explication: A Democratic Model for the Interpretation of Modern State Constitutions (2020) (advancing an intent-based method of constitutional interpretation that privileges the official deliberation of the constitutional drafting body)
7. Paul Yowell, Constitutional Rights and Constitutional Design (2020) (offering a critical insight on the Court’s empirical reasoning and the judicial review provisions in the design of constitutional rights)
8. Vlad Perju, Against Bidimensional Supremacy in EU Constitutionalism (forthcoming 2020) (challenging conceptually and interpretatively the EU supremacy as a necessarily bidimensional phenomenon of supranational and national dimensions)
9. Xenophon Contiades and Alkmene Fotiadou, Routledge Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Change (2020) (providing a comprehensive understanding of the importance of constitutional change mechanisms and tools in the study of constitutional law)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. African Yearbook of International Law welcomes submission for its special theme of Volume 24 on African Regional Law and Health: Present Status and Prospects. The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2020.
2. Indian Society for Legal Research (ISLR) organizes the 1^st virtual summer school on “International Legal System in the Age of Pandemic”.
3. The Department of Legal Studies at Central European University (CEU) invites applications for an Assistant Professor in international human rights law.
4. The International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice invites submissions for the special issue on “Crime Prevention in Ibero-America”. The deadline for abstract submissions is August 31, 2020.
5. The Law Department of the European University Institute (EUI) with the support of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) invites submissions for a two-day Doctoral Forum on International Law “Practising Reflexivity in International Law”. The deadline of abstract submission is September 13, 2020.
6. The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History offers a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department for European and Comparative Legal History for the research field “Legal Transfer in the Common Law World”. The application must be submitted by August 31, 2020.
7. The Singapore Management University (SMU), School of Law invites distinguished scholars to apply for the Lee Kong Chian International Visiting Professor (LKC Professor) position to begin in August 2021, for a two months period. The application deadline is set on December 10, 2020.
8. The Working Group on discrimination against women and girls invites contributions to present a thematic report on women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights (SHRC) in situation of crisis to the 47^th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2021. The deadline is August 31, 2020.

Elsewhere Online

1. Anjali Busar, Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Bostock v. County: a crowning glory, yet not enough?, IJLPP IL Blog
2. Bertil Emrah Oder, Attacking the Bar Associations, Verfassungsblog
3. Lando Kirchmair, Turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque (again), Vöelkerrechtsblog
4. Lorenzo Zucca, Much ado about uncertainty: how Shakespeare navigates doubt, PSYCHE
5. Lucas Brang, The Counter-Enlightenment Strikes Back, Verfassungsblog
6. Rachel Lopez, The Law of Gravity: A Newtonian Proposal for Public International Law, OpinioJuris
7. Shamshad Pasarlay and M. Basher Mobasher, Electoral Crises, Peace Process with Taliban and Constitutional Reform in Afghanistan, ConstitutionNet
8. Stefanía Rainaldi, Symposium: The Sabalsagaray Case: A Uruguayan Example of the Integration of International Human Rights Law with Constitutional Law, IACL-AIDC Blog
9. Steve Peers, Family reunion, the rights of the child and effective remedies: latest CJEU judgment, EU Law Analysis