What’s New in Public Law

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—Simon Drugda, PhD Candidate at the University of Copenhagen

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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 iconnecteditors@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe ruled that the country’s national pledge was an unconstitutional violation of school children’s right to freedom of conscience and parental rights.
2. The Supreme Court of Venezuela invalidated a motion by the National Assembly to extend its term an additional year.
3. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine invalidated a presidential decree suspending the term of office of the Constitutional Court President.
4. The website of the European Court of Human Rights was the subject of a cyberattack.
5. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina found two measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 unconstitutional – the mandatory use of face masks in the Canton of Sarajevo and a general restriction of movement in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the News

1. The National Congress of Argentina passed a law legalizing abortion.
2. The Parliament of Gabon adopts a new Constitution.
3. The President of Algeria ratifies a new Constitution.
4. Belarus will hold a referendum on constitutional change or replacement.
5. The United Kingdom formally exited the European Union.

New Scholarship

1. Federico Fabbrini, Brexit and the Future of the European Union: The Case for Constitutional Reforms (2020) (examining how the EU has changed during Brexit and because of Brexit, while also reflecting on the developments of the EU besides Brexit and beyond Brexit)
2. Justin Collings, Scales of Memory: Constitutional Justice and Historical Evil (2021) (exploring the relationship between constitutional interpretation and the memory of historical evil in the United States, Germany, and South Africa)
3. Rehan Abeyratne and Iddo Porat (eds), Towering Judges: A Comparative Study of Constitutional Judges (2021) (examining the work of nineteen judges from fourteen jurisdictions, each of whom stood out individually among their fellow judges and had a unique impact on the trajectory of constitutional law)
4. Adam Bonica and Maya Sen, The Judicial Tug of War: How Lawyers, Politicians, and Ideological Incentives Shape the American Judiciary (2020) (presenting a novel theory explaining how and why politicians and lawyers politicize courts)
5. Sergio Bartole, The Internationalisation of Constitutional Law A View from the Venice Commission (2020) (examining the work of the Venice Commission and showing how constitutional law in has become increasingly borderless)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Contemporary Central and East European Law Journal published by the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, invites submissions for its 2nd volume. The deadline for the submission is March 15, 2021.
2. Birmingham Law School invites submissions for a workshop on “Constituent Power in Commonwealth Constitutional Legal Systems,” due to take place in April 2021. The deadline for submission of abstracts is January 22, 2021.
3. PopCon project research team at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki invites abstract submissions for an international conference on “Populist Transformation of Constitutional Law: Populist constitutionalism and democratic representation,” to be held on May 7-8, 2021. The deadline for submission of abstracts is January 10, 2021.

Elsewhere Online

1. Rivka Weil, Can the Judiciary Guard Democratic Transitions of Power? An Indian-Israeli Perspective, Law and Other Things
2. Kim Lane Scheppele, Trump’s Endgame – Part I and Part II, Verfassungsblog
3. Gautam Bhatia, Horizontal Reservations and the Persistence of the Myth of Merit, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
4. Tatiana Kazim, Can trans children consent to puberty blocking drugs? The High Court of England and Wales doubts it, OxHRH
5. Lidya Stamper, When policy isn’t enough: Examining accessibility of sexual and reproductive health rights for displaced populations in South Africa, AfricLaw
6. Po Jen Yap, Proportionality in Asia, British Association of Comparative Law