What’s New in Public Law

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–Susan Achury, Visiting Lecturer at Texas Christian University

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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 US Supreme Court decided not to block the controversial Texas abortion law banning all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
2. The Mexican Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to punish abortion as a crime.
3. The Constitutional Court of Colombia declared unconstitutional life imprisonment for rapists and murderers of minors because it violates human dignity.
4. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) of El Salvador issued a ruling this Friday in which it enables the incumbent president to compete for immediate reelection.
5. The US Supreme Court decided Biden administration must comply with the ruling to restart the “remain in Mexico” program for asylum-seekers
6. Austria Constitutional Court suspended the deportation of Afghan national seeking asylum.
7. The Constitutional Court of Cape Verde approved the extradition to the US of a Venezuelan ally.
8. The Constitutional Court of Ecuador defined criteria for expropriation. Private property must be exercised by observing the parameters of social and environmental responsibility.

In the News

1. The US Justice Department sues Texas over its controversial restrictive abortion law.
2. Hungary shows support to Poland in its dispute with the European Commission.
3. The Office of the Inspector General of Colombia asks the Constitutional Court to guarantee gender parity in the Electoral Code.
4. The Constitutional Court of Colombia asks the Government for explanations about the security of former FARC combatants.
5. A South African tribunal freezes funds linked to China’s CRRC.
6. Human Rights Watch reports about widespread suspicious killings of dissidents in Egypt.
7. President Bolsonaro criticizes the Brazilian judiciary. 
8. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expresses its disapproval of the legislative reforms in judicial matters in El Salvador.
9. The Commission of the Chamber of Deputies in Chile has approved the bill on equal marriage.
10. Australian Indigenous leaders filed a complaint with the UN over the proposed heritage bill.

New Scholarship

1. Arvind Kurian Abraham, Essential Religious Practices Test and the First Amendment: A Comparative Analysis of the Free Exercise of Religion in India and the United States (2021) (comparing free exercise of religion jurisprudence under the Indian Constitution and the US Constitution).
2. Anuscheh Farahat and Xabier Arzoz, Contesting Austerity (2021) (addressing the different forms of austerity, contestation, and resistance and their impact on the democratic quality of public debates, the trust in public institutions and the legitimacy of law).
3. James Gibson and Michael Nelson, Judging Inequality: State Supreme Courts and the Inequality Crisis (2021) (identifying the influence of State Supreme Courts in soaring levels of political, legal, economic, and social inequality in the United States).
4. Arianna Vedaschi, Kim Lane Scheppele, 9/11 and the Rise of Global Anti-Terrorism Law (2021) (examining the role of the roles of the UN Security Council shaping global counter-terrorism policies).
5. Sandra Botero and Laura Gamboa, Corte al Congreso: Poder judicial y trámite legislativo en Colombia (2021) (assessing the indirect effect of courts on legislative decision-making).
6. Jorge Ernesto Roa, ¿No(s) representan los jueces constitucionales? (2021) (arguing that courts have a representative function that can be argumentative, deliberative, and meritocratic).
7. Bertus de Villiers, Joseph Marko, Francesco Palermo, and Sergiu Constantin, Litigating the Rights of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Domestic and International Courts (2021) (analyzing the role of courts protecting the rights of minorities and indigenous people).
8. Tonja Jacobi, Zoe Robinson, and Patrick Leslie, Comparative Exceptionalism? Strategy and Ideology in the High Court of Australia (2021) (comparing strategic advocacy under different institutional settings).
9. Sandra Liebenberg, Austerity in the midst of a pandemic: pursuing accountability through the socio-economic rights doctrine of non-retrogression (2021) (analyzing the non-retrogression doctrine and its role in advancing greater accountability for rights-eroding budgetary decisions).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Institutum Iurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica (IIAS), invites submission for its 9th Asian Constitutional Law Forum 2022 on “Asian Constitutionalism in Troubled Times.” The deadline for submission of abstracts is November 1, 2021.
2. Young Scholars Initiative on Populism invites submissions for an online workshop. The deadline for submission of abstracts is September 26, 2021.
3. Georgetown University Law Center & University of Houston Law Center invite submissions for the virtual Colloquium on Race, Racism & American Media. The deadline for submission of abstracts is December 3, 2021.
4. Southern Political Science Association has extended the deadline for submissions. The deadline for submission of abstracts is September 15, 2021.
5. The Rehnquist Center invites submissions for its fourth annual National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars. The deadline for abstracts is October 1, 2021.
6. The University of Dublin has issued a call for papers for the 2022 Public Law Conference. The Richard Hart Prize for the best paper by an early career scholar will be awarded at the conference. The deadline for submission of abstracts is November 15, 2021.
7. Submissions are invited for book chapters in the edited volume “Fostering First Gen Success and Inclusion: A Guide for Law Schools,” to be published by Carolina Academic Press. The deadline for chapter proposals is September 1, 2021.
8. The Age of Human Rights Journal is inviting submissions for its June 2022 issue. (Submissions due January 1, 2022).
9. Coventry University, The Graduate Institute Geneva, and the University of Pretoria have issued a call for papers for the conference on “Sanctions and Africa: An International Law and Politics Conference.” The deadline for submission of abstracts is September 15, 2021.

Elsewhere Online

1. Nelson Camilo Sanchez, Roles and Responsibilities of the Private Sector in Transitional Justice Processes in Latin America: The cases of Colombia, Guatemala, and Argentina, DPLF.
2. Shamshad Pasarlay, Fatal Non-Evolution Afghanistan’s 2004 Constitution and the Collapse of Political Order, Verfassungsblog.
3. Michael J. Kelly, RBG “I Told You So” Re: Roe v. Wade, JURIST.
4. Marek Domin, Can People Ask for Early Elections? Slovak Constitutional Court Says No, IACL-AIDC blog.
5. Eric Goldstein, In Tunisia, President’s Power Grab and an Absent Constitutional Court, JURIST.
6. Conor Casey, Thinking About Executive Power Post-Pandemic, IACL-AIDC blog.
7. Harsh Jain and Eeshan Sonak, The New Pension Rules 2021 and the Freedom of Speech of Government Employees – I and II., Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy blog.