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 Court

1. The Brazilian Supreme Court opened investigation against President Bolsonaro for the dissemination of false news.
2. The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation declared unconstitutional the prohibition of the cultivation of cannabis for non-medical or research purposes, authorizing its use for industrial purposes.
3. Ecuador’s Constitutional Court stop a mining project in a protective forest by declaring the “violation of the rights of nature”
4. The Constitutional Court upheld the law that declared that sexual violence against minors is imprescriptible.
5. The Federal German Constitutional Court declared ‘COVID-19 Emergency Brake’ constitutional.
6. The Indonesian Constitutional Court ordered government And House of Representatives to rectify job creation law within two years.
7. The Turkish Constitutional Court declared that public officials are liable for not preventing male violence.

In the News

1. Biden administration to restart Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy
2. Europe Court to issue infringement proceedings against Turkey for failure to release philanthropist
3. The Brazilian Supreme Court suspended suspends law that prohibits the teaching of inclusive or neutral language in public or private schools.
4. The Colombian Supreme Court approved extradition to the United States of a member of the defunct FARC.
5. Amnesty International in Argentina asked president, Alberto Fernández for a women magistrate to be nominated and appointed to the Supreme Court, in accordance with the gender balance required by law.
6. Barbados has become a republic, ending with the British rule.
7. Portugal’s president vetoes euthanasia bill, Parliament will have to return to the debate after January elections.

New Scholarship

1. Christina L. Boyd, Michael J. Nelson, Ian Ostrander, and Ethan D. Boldt, The Politics of Federal Prosecution, (examining how prosecutor in the US are politically responsive)
2. DJ Galligan, The Courts and the People: Friend or Foe? (examining the case for judicial independence, whether judicial independence under threat, and whether & how judicial independence can be defended and protected) **Special Discount Code** Use the code UG8 for 20% off when ordering directly via www.bloomsbury.com
3. Svitlana Chernykh and Zachary Elkins, How Constitutional Drafters Use Comparative Evidence, (analyzing the extent and kind of references to foreign countries and political institutions in the constitutional making process in Brazil and Ukraine)
4. Andrew Arato, Jean L. Cohen, Populism and Civil Society The Challenge to Constitutional Democracy, (examining the challenge of populism to democracy in in terms of its four main organizational forms: socio-political movement, political party, government, and regime).
5. Mark S. Berlin , Does Criminalizing Torture Deter Police Torture?, (arguing that criminalization of torture at the national level is more likely to deter police torture than these other forms of legal prohibition).
6. Gabriel L. Negretto, Tinkering with executive term limits: partisan imbalances and institutional legacies in Latin America, (arguing that reforms relaxing executive term limits depend on the relative partisan power of presidents and on inherited institutional constraints)
7. Hubert Smekal, Jaroslav Benák, and Ladislav Vyhnánek,  Through selective activism towards greater resilience: the Czech Constitutional Court’s interventions into high politics in the age of populism, (examining the Czech case to argue that resilient constitutional courts may act as one of the key safe guards against  illiberal  populism).
8. Chase Foster, Varieties of neoliberalism: courts, competition paradigms and the Atlantic divide in anti-trust, (analyzing how courts can contribute to both ideational continuity and change in economic policy).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Westminster Law School (United Kingdom) and the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) has issued a call for papers for the conference Justice for Atrocities: Dialogues and Encounters between Latin America and Europe. Deadline January 7, 2022.
2. Michigan Law School 2022 Junior Scholars Conference April 22-23, 2022 has invited junior scholars to attend the 8th Annual Junior Scholars Conference, which will take place in-person on April 22-23, 2022, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Deadline, January 10, 2022.
3. The Socio-Legal Studies Association is inviting submissions for its upcoming annual conference. Deadline January 7, 2022.
4. Columbia Law School, Georgetown University Law School, Stanford Law School, UCLA School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California Center for Law, History, and Culture invite submissions for the 21st meeting of the Law and Humanities Junior Scholars Workshop. Deadline December 15, 2021.
5. The Urban Law Center at Fordham Law School and the Peter A. Allard School of Law at University of British Columbia (UBC) has announced a call for participation in the 8th Annual International and Comparative Urban Law Conference. Deadline January 14, 2022.
6. The International Journal for the Semiotics of Law has issued a call for papers for the Special issue, Towards digitization of cultural practices and contents Issues, limits and legal tools.
7. The Barry ACS Student Chapter & Law Review and the Texas A&M University School of Law have extended the Call for Papers for the 7th Annual Constitutional Law Scholars Forum. The Call invites scholarly proposals at any stage before publication on the following topics: Constitutional Law, Ethics, or Technology in Law Practice. Deadline January 1, 2022.
8. The Military Justice in the Modern Era Conference is inviting proposals for papers. Deadline January 31, 2022.

Elsewhere Online

1. Wojciech Sadurski, A Blatant Attack on Free Media, Verfassungsblog.
2. Anne Sanders and Elisabeth Faltinat , Independent Selection of Judges via Competence Evaluation and Lot, Verfassungsblog.
3. Cassie Maas, US federal judge blocks Texas social media censorship law, JURIST.
4. Mark R. Brown, The Legality of Biden’s OSHA Vaccine Mandate for American Workers, JURIST.
5. Octávio Luiz Motta Ferraz, Crime and (lack of) Punishment in Brazil’s Pandemic Response, Lex-Atlas: Covid-19
6. Hans-Georg Betz, How anti-Corona measures have revived the populist right, Center for Analysis of the Radical Right.
7. Katie Lines, 18 months of COVID-19 legislation in England: a rule of law analysis, The Constitution Unit Blog.
8. Daniel Vásquez, La victoria de Xiomara Castro en la Honduras de la democracia oligárquica, Nueva Sociedad