What’s New in Public Law

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—Matteo Mastracci, Digital Rights Researcher, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), and PhD Researcher, Koç University, Istanbul

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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. Hungary’s Constitutional Court quashed the referendum initiated by the opposition party on government’s controversial plans to build a Chinese university in the Hungarian capital and extend unemployment benefits to a maximum of nine months from the current three-month period.
2. South Korea’s Constitutional Court will hold next July 14 an open hearing regarding a case on capital punishment. A committee under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea filed a petition in 2019 arguing that the death penalty is unconstitutional and requested a court review.
3. Taiwan’s Constitutional Court has declared as constitutional a central government order invalidating all local government regulations requiring that food products be free of the controversial veterinary drug ractopamine.
4. The Constitutional Court of South Africa determined that those who were unable to renew their firearm licences in time and were subsequently barred from further obtaining a valid licence, are allowed to follow the processes as stipulated in the Firearms Control Act to obtain a valid firearm licence for such firearms.
5. Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the legal age of consent for sex should be raised to 18 from 16. The ruling struck down as unconstitutional provisions in the Criminal Law that set the age of consent for sex at 16.

In the News

1. Albania’s parliament is due to elect a new President on Saturday from the ranks of the ruling Socialist Party, which has not disclosed any candidates just one day before the vote takes place.
2. Allies of Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera have proposed changes to the constitution that would let him keep running for office, prompting protests from the opposition.
3. Denmark will join the European Union’s defence policy after the referendum results of Wednesday (1 June) on whether to end three decades of opting out of EU defense policy. The vote was called after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
4. The German parliament voted on Friday for a constitutional amendment to create a 100-billion-euro ($107-billion) fund beefing up its military defences in the face of an emboldened Russia.
5. The Seychelles National Assembly voted for an amendment to the Constitution of the island state that gives the Seychelles Defence Forces (SDF) the right to enforce domestic law in relation to public security, environmental protection and maritime security.

New Scholarship

1. Jack Goldsmith, The United States’ Defend Forward Cyber Strategy (June, 2022) (providing an empiric and legal analysis of United States’ defense policy)
2. Kenny Chng, The relevance of purpose in constitutional equal protection challenges to executive action (May, 2022) (analysing challenges to executive action based on generalized guarantees of equal protection)
3. Matthew Groves and Anita Stuhmcke, The Ombudsman in the Modern State (May, 2022) (exploring current and future challenges for the Ombudsman institution and the systems of government within which they operate)
4. Stephen Tierney, The Federal Contract. A Constitutional Theory of Federalism (June, 2022) (offering a comparative analysis of federal systems from the perspective of constitutional theory)
5. Vicki C. Jackson and Yasmin Dawood, Constitutionalism and a Right to Effective Government? (forthcoming, August 2022) (inquiring on the relationship between constitutionalism and capacity of governments to perform basic functions)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. European Law and Governance School in collaboration with the NKUA Applied Philosophy Research Laboratory is organizing a summer course on “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:  Α philosophical and legal discourse on AI” to be held next 25-29 July in Athens. Applicants should submit an updated CV and letter of motivation by 30 June 2022.
2. The Civil Law department at Leiden Law School is looking for a Researcher (Postdoc) in European Consumer Law that will work on the research project “These Shoes Don’t Fit! – How can consumer interests be protected when consumer identities are increasingly diffuse?”. Deadline for applications is 26 June 2022.
3. The Department of International Law at Ludovika – University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary invites applicants to submit applications for the conference on “War and Peace in the 21st Century – The Lifecycle of Modern Armed Conflicts” to be held next 23 September 2022. Deadline for abstract submission is 15 July 2022.
4. The Faculty of Law of the University of Trento invites candidates active in International Law to apply for a position of Full Professor level. The post is for a permanent position. The area of research is International Law. Applications must be submitted online by 16 June 2022.
5. The International Review of Law, Computers & Technology invites manuscript submissions for a special issue on digital and online violence. Interested authors should submit abstracts of no more than 500 words and up to 4 keywords by 3 October 2022.

Elsewhere Online

1. Ahmed Ragib Chowdhury, On the Restriction of International Organizations’ Immunity by the Supreme Court of the United States, Völkerrechtsblog
2. Catherine Owen, Varieties of authoritarianism, and how they might be studied, The Loop
3. Fjori Sinoruka, Air of Secrecy Hangs Over Election of Albanian President, Balkan Insight
4. Hamdi Firat Buyuk, Turkey’s Planned Internet Law to Criminalise ‘Spreading Misinformation’, B.I.R.D.
5. Tainá Garcia Maia, The subtle erosion of democracy in Latin America: the case of Lula in the Human Rights Committee, EJIL: Talk!
6. Thomas Perroud and Jérôme Graefe, The French Constitutional Council’s Problem with Impartiality, Verfassungsblog