What’s New in Public Law

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

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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 Turkish Constitutional Court has unanimously concluded that the bombing by the military of two Turkish villages violated the right to life of the deceased, the wounded and their relatives.
2. The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Slovakia and granted compensation to victims in a case of police brutality against Roma.  
3. The Supreme Court of India directed the Centre, States and Union Territories to come up with a legislative and executive public health plan.
4. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the government and its agencies to desist from using terms such as “disabled”, “physically handicapped” and “mentally retarded” as they offend the dignity of persons.
5. Ukraine’s Constitutional Court recognized certain lockdown restrictions as unconstitutional.
6. The Supreme Court of India imposed a fine of Rs. 1 on Advocate Prashant Bhushan in contempt proceedings.
7. The Supreme Court of New Zealand recognized that the right to justice outlives the individual.

In the News

1. Young activists from Portugal sue 33 countries over climate change at the European Court of Human Rights.
2. U.N. Human Rights experts raise concerns over Hong Kong security law.
3. Plea seeking referendum on presidential form of government filed before Pakistani Supreme Court.
4. The Indonesian Constitutional Court Law is set to be revised amidst civil society concerns regarding impartiality of the Court.
5. PIL filed in the Supreme Court of India challenging the publication of marriage notices under the Special Marriage Act provisions as violative of the right to privacy and right to marry a partner of one’s choice.
6. Sri Lankan government has gazetted the 20^th Constitutional Amendment which reintroduces full legal immunity for the President.
7. Germany urges EU action over poisoning of anti – corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny.

New Scholarship

1. Giuliano Amato, Benedetta Barbisan and Cesare Pinelli (eds.), Rule of Law vs Majoritarian Democracy (2021) (examines the tension which arises between will of the people and rule of law when democratically elected regimes ignore constitutional principles.)
2. Ulrich Haltern, The Constitution of the European Union: A Contextual Analysis (2021) (provides an overview of the Constitution of the European Union.)
3. Madhav Khosla, India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy (2020) (explores how India’s Constitution came into being and instituted democracy after independence from British rule.)
4. Alexander Tsesis, Free Speech in the Balance (2020) (challenges the categorical approach of the U.S. Supreme Court in free speech cases and discusses the application of proportionality in free speech theory.)
5. Gabriel L. Negretto, Redrafting Constitutions in Democratic Regimes: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives (2020) (examines the conditions such as erosion of democracy that lead to redrafting of a Constitution) 

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism welcomes participants for “The Global Summit” to be held Jan 12-16, 2021. The first of its kind summit will be both multilingual and multi-time zone, and it offers an opportunity for all-ranks scholars from all over the world to exchange ideas on all areas of constitutionalism. The deadline to submit a proposal for a paper or a fully-formed panel is 8 pm (local time in Ottawa, Canada) on Oct 1, 2020.
2. All are welcome to a roundtable discussion on the US Supreme Court appointments process on Friday, September 18.
3. Registration is now open for Democracy in our Digital Age, featuring Jack Balkin, Kate Klonick, and Vivek Krishnamurthy.
4. The International Review of Human Rights Law invites submissions for its sixth issue. The last date of submission is September 29, 2020
5. The National Law School of India Review invites contributions for its forthcoming Volume 33 Issue 1. The deadline for submissions is October 30, 2020.
6. The Centre for Ethics and Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania is going to hold a virtual book talk on How to Save a Constitutional Democracy by Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Huq. The talk will be held on 24 September 2020 at 12.00 pm Eastern time. Registrations will be open till 24 September 2020, 11.00 am Eastern Time.
7. The International Journal of Discrimination and the Law invites submissions for a special issue entitled “COVID – 19: Lessons for and from Vulnerability Theory.” The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2020.
8. The Participatory and Deliberative Democracy group invites proposals of full panels and individual papers for the PSA Conference: Resilience, Expertise, Hope, to be convened by Queen’s University Belfast  on 29 -31^st March 2021. The proposals can be submitted by September 30, 2020.
9. The Chinese University of Hong Kong invites chapters on the topic Constitutional Law in Greater China for a book to be published by Routledge in 2022. The deadline for submitting proposals is October 1, 2020.

Elsewhere Online

1. Adam Chilton & Mila Versteeg, Three Trends in Constitutional Rights Protection, Summary, Judgment
2. Adam Chilton & Mila Versteeg, Our Theory on How Rights Matter in a Nutshell, Summary, Judgment
3. Adam Chilton & Mila Versteeg, The Methods we Used to Study the Effectiveness of Constitutional Rights, Summary, Judgment
4. Adam Chilton & Mila Versteeg, Using Large-N Data to Examine the Effect of Constitutional Rights, Summary, Judgment
5. Adam Chilton & Mila Versteeg, Turkey’s Wikipedia Ban and Popular Support for Violating Constitutional Rights, Summary, Judgment
6. Adam Chilton & Mila Versteeg, What Constitutions Do: Unanswered Questions, Summary, Judgment
7. Alisha Haridasani Gupta, Transgender People Face New Legal Fight After Supreme Court Victory, In Her Words, The New York Times.
8. After Hogan resignation, EU and Ireland await new trade commissioner, Yale Macmillan Center.
9. Abhinav Chandrachud, Sub – Classification in Reservations – II, Indconlawphil.
10. Bizzare Judgment on the Call to Prayer is Wrong in Law and Rewards Religious Prejudice, Constitutionally Speaking.
11. Reto Walther, Banana Republic Switzerland? Verfassungsblog.
12. Ugandan Constitutional Law Judgment: Maternal Health is a Constitution Right, Reprohealthlaw Blog.
13. Esteban Vallejo Toledo, Ecuador: IACtHR’s first ruling re sexual abuse and death of student, Reprohealthlaw Blog.
14. Bernard M. Dickens, UK Supreme Court: Paid surrogacy abroad does not violate public policy, Reprohealthlaw Blog.