What’s New in Public Law

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–Boldizsár Szentgáli-Tóth, Research Fellow at Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies – Centre of Excellence (Budapest); researcher at National University of Public Services (Budapest)

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In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publish a curate 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 Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the European Court of Human rights cannot question the legitimacy of its judges.
2. The Supreme Court of India observed that the equivalence of prescribed qualifications with any other given qualification could not be decided through judicial review.
3. The Constitutional Court of Colombia has overturned a lower court’s decision that forced a Colombian influencer to take down a video in which she expressed her Christian belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.
4. Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ordered the government to amend parts of a controversial job creation law within two years, describing it as conditionally unconstitutional by undermining workers’ rights and environmental protection.
5. South Dakota’s Supreme Court ruled against the legalisation of recreational marijuana
6. The British Colombia Court of Appeal and British Colombia Supreme Court have decided to eliminate the practice of addressing justices as “my lady”, “my lord”, “your ladyship”, or “your lordship”.

 In the News

1. The Venice Commission issued an urgent opinion on the recent Serbian constitutional amendments concerning the judiciary.
2. The Parliament of Jordan opened the debate on constitutional changes concerning the electoral system and the country’s political structure.
3. The Minister of Justice of Algeria stated that the installation of the Constitutional Court of Algeria was a significant step to building stable institutions and a consolidated democracy in the country.
4. The Parliament of New Zealand went into urgency today to rush through legislation that will allow businesses and groups to introduce vaccination mandates among their staff ahead of the new Covid-19 Protection Framework starting in December, which raised severe constitutional concerns.
5. An agreement was concluded in Sudan after massive protests to reinstate the former prime minister, release political prisoners, and restore the transition to civilian rule nearly a month after the military coup.
6. Australia sent police and military forces to the Solomon Islands due to the spread of protests to maintain stability and normal constitutional processes in the country.
7. The Government of South Africa approved a bill to be submitted to the Parliament concerning proposed amendments of the electoral system to allow independent candidates to run.
8. The head of the Belarusian presidential administration identified key principles that should be incorporated into constitutional amendments currently being drafted.
9. Auctioneers revealed the buyer’s identity of an extremely rare original copy of the US Constitution for a record $43 million – a billionaire who will loan it to a museum to maximise the document’s viewing.

New Scholarship

1. Karlo Tuori, Properties of Law: Modern Law and After (2021) (critically examining modern state law)
2. Ioanna Tourkochoriti, Freedom of Expression The Revolutionary Roots of American and French Legal Thought (2021) (exploring the impact of divergent revolutionary traditions in France and the United States on the freedom of expression)
3. Brian Christopher Jones, Democracy and Rule of Law in China’s Shadow (2021) (providing detailed insight into some of the most contentious events occurring in jurisdictions operating within China’s vast shadow)
4. Monika Florczak-Wątor (eds): Judicial Law-Making in European Constitutional Courts. Routledge, December (2021) (analysing the specificity of the law-making activity of European constitutional courts)
5. Rehan Abeyratne and Ngoc Son Bui (eds), The Law and Politics of Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments in Asia (2021) (examining how the idea and practice of unconstitutional constitutional amendment are shaped by, and inform, constitutional politics across Asia)
6. Zaid Al-Ali, Arab Constitutionalism: The Coming Revolution (2021) (critically examining the constitution-making and constitutional change in the Arab region after 2011)
7. Berihun Adugna Gebeye, A Theory of African Constitutionalism (2021) (theorising the development and transformation of African constitutionalism from pre-colonial times to the present with the attendant constitutional designs and practices)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. ICON-S CEE Chapter invites interested participants to join an online roundtable talk on the topic of the book Power to the People: Constitutionalism in the Age of Populism (Oxford University Press 2021) by Mark Tushnet and Bojan Bugaric, on 9 December 2021.
2. 7th Constitutional Law Scholars Forum invites submission for the conference held in Orlando, the USA, on 25 February 2022. The deadline for submissions of abstracts is 1 December 2021.
3. The Law Unit of ATINER will hold its 19th Annual International Conference on Law, 11-14 July 2022, Athens, Greece, sponsored by the Athens Journal of Law. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 13 December 2021.
4. Constitutional Law Review invites submissions for its second issue in 2021. The deadline for submissions is 30 December 2021.
5. The editors are pleased to invite scholars to contribute a proposal for a new book on “Integrating Doctrine & Diversity: Inclusion and Equity Beyond the First Year,” published by Carolina Academic Press. The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2021.
6. The Oklahoma Law Review is accepting tax-themed submissions for publication in its upcoming spring 2022 issue. The deadline for abstracts is 7 January 2022.
7. The San Diego Law Review (SDLR) invites submissions for its 2022 Privacy Symposium. The deadline for submission is 15 March 2022.

Elsewhere Online

1. Giacomo Orsini, Jean-Baptiste Farcy, Sarah Smit & Laura Merla, Security-vested Institutional Racism: the Case of Migration to Belgium, Verfassungsblog
2. Mohsin Alam Bhat, Irregularizing Citizenship in India, Verfassungsblog
3. Charles Kaiser, Justice on the Brink review: how the religious right took the supreme court, The Guardian
4. Ronan Cormacain, Blue-eyed Babies, Amnesties, Sovereignty of Parliament and the Rule of Law: The Northern Ireland Legacy Proposals, UK Constitutional Law Association
5. Arvind Kurian Abraham, Constitutions and Housework, IACL-AIDC Blog
6. Paul Daly, The Kerr Report, 50 Years On: An Overseas Overview, AUSPUBLAW
7. Imani Henrick, Bitebo Gogo, Ogah Peter Ejegwoya & Ayowole Olotupa-Adetona, The role of African governments in the implementation of the Revised Declaration on freedom of expression online in Africa, AfricLaw