What’s New in Public Law

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–Boldizsár Szentgáli-Tóth, Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies – Centre of Excellence (Budapest), and a Research Fellow at Eotvos Loránd University (Budapest)

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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 Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India held a two-day-long hearing on the challenge to the Socially & Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act 2018, which provided for a quota to Marathas in jobs and education.
2. The Constitutional Court of Portugal struck down a law passed by the Parliament that allows euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill and gravely injured people due to its imprecise wording.
3. The Constitutional Court of Kuwait ordered the country’s most outspoken opposition lawmaker expelled from parliament.
4. The Constitutional Court of Albania has demanded the government to set a timeline for the duration of restrictions of movement and gatherings.
5. The Constitutional Court of Niger confirmed the winner of the last month’s presidential runoff election, which marks the first transfer of power from one democratically elected leader to another in Niger.

In the News

1. The Parliament of Thailand failed to pass a bill that would have allowed changes to a military-backed Constitution enacted after the 2014 coup.
2. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that state Senate Democrats violated the Constitution in 2019 when they responded to Republicans’ request that bills be read at length by having computers speed-read the bills.
3. The district court of Sapporo found the Japanese same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.
4. The Constitution of Pennsylvania has been amended with a rarely used emergency process advancing a proposal to allow victims of child sexual abuse a 2-year window for filing otherwise outdated civil lawsuits.
5. The Tennessee Senate approved an amendment to remove a section of the state Constitution that allows slavery as a punishment for a crime.
6. The Missouri House of Representative passed a constitutional amendment to increase the threshold for adopting constitutional amendments from 51% of the vote to a two-thirds majority and increase the number of signatories required for putting initiatives on the ballot.
7. The North Carolina House of Representatives approved a resolution to formally endorse a US constitutional convention that considers sending a congressional term-limit amendment to the states.
8. An organizer of protest against a proposed set of constitutional amendments in Kyrgyzstan has been detained for allegedly calling on people to seize power before the changes become law.
9. The Canadian province of Alberta has introduced legislation to give citizens a chance to directly petition the province to amend policies, laws, and the Constitution.
10. The French National Assembly approved a plan to change the country’s Constitution to reinforce environmental protection.
11. The Ombudsman of Armenia stated that a government-drafted bill that would cut his office’s funding is discriminatory.

New Scholarship

1. Jonathan Gould, David Pozen, Structural Biases in Structural Constitutional Law, New York University Law Review (2021) (developing the idea of structural biases in structural constitutional law that sometimes tilt the playing field for or against certain political factions)
2. Gilmar Mendes, Victor Oliveira Fernandes, Digital Constitutionalism and Constitutional Jurisdiction: A Research Agenda for the Brazilian Case (2021) (discussing how normative principles of digital constitutionalism can guide the judicial review of internet laws in Brazil)
3. Nikos Skoutaris, Problematising the Role of the EU in Territorial Sovereignty Conflicts (2021) (problematizing the role of the European Union in territorial sovereignty conflicts)
4. Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Gerhard van der Schyff, Maarten Stremler, and Maartje De Visser (eds), The City in Constitutional Law – European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 2020 (2021) (examining the positioning and powers of cities in the contemporary constitutional context)
5. Eve Hepburn, Michael Keating, Nicola McEwen (eds): Scotland’s New Choice: Independence after Brexit (2021) (providing a guide to anyone seeking to navigate the issues involved in holding a second referendum on independence in Scotland)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. RECONNECT (Reconciling Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and the Rule of Law), a Horizon2020 research project, has recently launched the second run of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on “Rule of Law and Democracy in Europe.”
2. The Centre on Constitutional Change organizes an online workshop on “Comparative Perspectives on Secession Series: The politics of constitutional reform and secession in Canada and Spain,” to be held on March 25, 2021.
3. The Centre for Constitutional Studies organizes a webinar on “Online Charter Series: The Constitutional Right of Religious Freedom in Canada,” to be held on March 22, 2021.
4. The University of Exeter and the University of Geneva invite submissions for their conference on The Potential of Public Interest Litigation in International Law, to be held on November 11-12, 2021. The deadline for submission of abstracts is April 30, 2021.
5. The European University Institute in Florence invites submissions to a conference on “The Dust of Time? Towards a 21st Century Constitutionalism,” to be held on October 7-8, 2021. The abstracts may be submitted by March 31, 2021.
6. The Journal Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie: Diritto, Istituzioni, Società (NAD) invites submissions for a special issue on “Democracy and rule of law in crisis: National and EU context compared.” The deadline for submission of essays is April 15, 2021. The deadline for all other submissions is May 15, 2021.
7. Call for Papers: New Authoritarian Regimes and Democracies: Law, Institutions, Society.
8. The European Yearbook of Constitutional Law invites proposals for its 2022 issue on “The Constitutional Identity of the European Union.” The proposals may be submitted by June 1, 2021.
9. The Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Department of Law, invites submissions for its conference on “New Technologies in Courts: Advantages and Limits.” The deadline for submission of abstracts is April 19, 2021.
10. The Indian Constitutional Law Review (ICLRQ) invites submissions for its forthcoming issue. The deadline for submission is April 25, 2021.
11. The Irish Legal History Society and Queen’s University Belfast invite submissions for the 25th British Legal History Conference 2022, to be held on July 6-9, 2021. The deadline for submission of abstracts is August 30, 2021.

Elsewhere Online

1. Mikołaj Barczentewicz, An empirical study of the gender of counsel before the UK’s highest court, UK Constitutional Law Association
2. Jacobo Dopico Gómez-Aller, The “Pablo Hasél Case:” Slander and Defamation of the Spanish Crown in the 21st Century, Verfassungsblog
3. Başak Çalı and Emre Turkut, Year One: Reflections on Turkey’s Legal Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Verfassungsblog
4. Yiannos Georgiades, Coronavirus restrictions: Revisiting the constitution, Cyprus Mail
5. Stephen Gethins, A Debate on Scotland’s Place in the World is Long Overdue, Centre on Constitutional Change