What’s New in Public Law

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– Irina Criveț, PhD Candidate in Public Law, Koç 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 Constitutional Court of Ukraine initiated the termination of the membership of the Constitutional Courts of the Russian Federation and Belarus in the World Conference on Constitutional Justice. Consequently, the Constitutional Court of Russia announced it has withdrawn from the Conference of Constitutional Courts of Europe (CECC) as of March 5.
2. The Polish Constitutional Tribunal found that European Convention on Human Rights is ‘incompatible’ with the Constitution.
3. The Supreme Court of Canada will decide whether a Quebec law that forbids the growing of cannabis for personal use is in line with the constitution.
4. The Colombian Constitutional Court recognized a non-binary gender marker.
5. The Constitutional Court of Spain annulled many provisions of the Catalan rent cap law that came into effect in September 2020.

In the News

1. EU heads of states and governments present in Versailles on the 10^th of March 2022 support Ukraine in pursuing its European path.
2. Justice Radwa Helmi became the first woman to sit on the bench of Egypt’s State Council, a top court in the country.
3. The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers consulted with the Parliamentary Assembly on further measures to be taken under Article 8 of the Council of Europe’ Statute in response to the serious violations by the Russian Federation of its statutory obligations as a Member State.
4. Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court Akil Kureshi retired Sunday ending a remarkable nearly two-decade-long career as a judge of a constitutional court.
5. South African judge Raymond Zondo was appointed on Thursday as head of the Constitutional Court.
6. Constitutional Court Justice Aldis Lavins was elected president of the Latvian Constitutional Court on Thursday.

New Scholarship

1. George Tsebelis, Constitutional Rigidity Matters: A Veto Players Approach British Journal of Political Science 52(1) (2022) (explains why the lack of constitutional rigidity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for significant constitutional amendments in democratic countries)
2. Jerg Gutmann, Roee Sarel and Stefan Voigt, Measuring Constitutional Loyalty: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic ILE Working Paper Series, No. 55 (2022) (show that the citizens’ support for Covid-19 mitigation policies declines if courts signal doubts about their constitutionality and that effect of constitutional loyalty depends on citizens’ characteristics, such as their confidence in the courts and their moral convictions)
3. Gauri Pillai, A Continuing Constitutional Conversation: Locating Nitisha International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 22 (1) (2022) (examines the role the Nitisha v Union of India had in India’s constitutional jurisprudence on non-discrimination) 
4. Antonio-Martín Porras-Gómez, Constitutional bills of rights and democratic transformation in post-authoritarian scenarios, The International Journal of Human Rights (2022) (examines the relationship between bills of rights and democratic transformation processes in post-authoritarian settings)
5. Guha Krishnamurthi, The Constitutional Right to Bench Trial, North Carolina Law Review, 100 (forthcoming 2022) (offers a comprehensive and multimodal argument that defendants have a constitutional right to bench trial)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. Tel Aviv University announced the launch of the Emergency Fellowship Fund for Ukrainian Graduate Students. The application must be sent to Michal Linder at TAU International –Intlprojects@tauex.tau.ac.il including a 1-page (up to 500 words) statement describing the research, letter of recommendation from the advisor and a document showing active status at home university in Ukraine. The applications will be considered on a rolling basis effective immediately and until further notice.
2. The Melbourne Law School issued a call for applications for postdoctoral fellows in International Law. The deadline for applications is 11 May 2022.
3. The Research Centre for East European Studies (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa – FSO) at the University of Bremen launched the Hans Koschnick Special Scholarships For Researchers At Risk for researchers at risk from Ukraine and threatened researchers from Russia and Belarus.
4. The Faculty of Law of UiT The Arctic University of Tromsø issued a call for proposals for the 2022 Critical Legal Conference. The theme of this year is LIMINALITIES. Please send your proposals to vito.delucia@uit.no.
5. ICON-S Chapter Germany invites participants to the 2nd Conference that will take place on 15-16 September 2022 – Margins in/of Law – at Justus Liebig University, Giessen. The abstract (500-max. 1000 words) and a short CV (max. 2-3 pp.) must be sent to iconsdeutschland@gmail.com in German or English by April 15, 2022.

Elsewhere online

1. Saeed Bagheri, Discredit to the Turkish Government Over the Social and Political Inequalities, Oxford Human Rights Hub
2. João Alípio Correa, Autocratisation: the key to capturing today’s democratic difficulties, The Loop ECPR’s Political Science Blog
3. Utkarsh Roy, The Constitutional Case Against EWS Reservations – Exploring the Principle of Reparative Justice under the Indian Constitution,  Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
4. Jeff Sebo, Why does justice for animals matter?, OUPblog
5. Geo Quinot, The Urgency of Procurement Reform after State Capture in South Africa, African Law Matters Blog
6. Eliav Lieblich, Not Far Enough: The European Court of Human Rights’ Interim Measures, Just Security
7. Elisa Chieregato, The first CJEU decision on domestic workers: the role of EU equality law in challenging unjustified exclusions from labour rights and social protections, European Law Blog
8. South Korea’s populist turn, East Asia Forum
9. Evghenii Ceban, The humanitarian crisis brewing on Ukraine’s border, Open Democracy