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. South Korea’s Constitutional Court held a 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.
2. The Constitutional Court of Costa Rica has ruled that condominiums have the full power to restrict or prohibit the possession of pets.
3. The Constitutional Court of Latvia has commenced a review of a case in which Riga City Council challenges a decision made by the Minister of Environment Protection and Regional Development to halt Riga’s development plan.
4. The Supreme Court of India has dismissed a plea seeking an independent probe into the alleged killing of 17 tribals during an anti-Naxal operation in Chhattisgarh in 2009.
5. The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed the suo motu proceedings, declaring that the ruling and detailed reasons of the deputy speaker, as well as the PM’s advice to the President to dissolve the National Assembly, were unconstitutional and that the President’s dissolution of the Assembly had no legal effect.

In the News

1. Pennsylvania governor has signed an executive order protecting the right to an abortion and other reproductive health care, such as contraception.
2. Sri Lanka’s newly appointed acting President Wickremesinghe declared that he will follow the constitutional process and establish law and order in the country.
3. The Albanian government has sent an “invitation for consultations” to business representatives on its controversial draft financial amnesty law to grant a fiscal amnesty to holders of illegal wealth.
4. The opposition party Free Destourian in Tunisia recently announced that it took legal action to halt the political campaign for the referendum on the new draft constitution to be held on 25 July.
5. Uzbekistan’s parliament extended a public consultation period on proposed amendments to the country’s constitution that had led to deadly clashes in the region of Karakalpakstan earlier this month.

New Scholarship

1. Aziz Z. Huq, The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies (March, 2022) (exploring how and why the Constitution’s plan for independent courts has failed to protect individuals’ constitutional rights)
2. Wojciech Sadurski, A Pandemic of Populists (July, 2022) (exploring a variety of constitutional and extraconstitutional strategies of populist leaders and parties and how they have reacted to the Covid-19 crisis)
3. Jacob Weinrib, What is Purposive Interpretation? (July, 2022) (analysing a set of ideas on legal interpretivism behind the purposive approach to the interpretation of constitutional rights)
4. Adam Shinar, Deconstructing Mixed Constitutions (July, 2022) (inquiring into the descriptive aspects of mixed constitutions and unpacking the meaning of what constitutes a mixed constitution)
5. Eduardo Silva de Freitas, Money, Blackmail and Lawsuits (July, 2022) (discussing a number of aspects of UK constitutional law together with European human rights law on fair trial and access to justice)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. Registration is now open for the Global Summit on Constitutionalism, to be held on March 16-18, 2023 at the University of Texas at Austin. Submissions are welcome for papers and panels.
2. The Mediterranean International Centre for Human Rights Research (Reggio Calabria, Italy) is opening a call for the Post-Doctoral Programme in New Technologies and Law. Interested applicants can apply by 30 July 2022.
3. Psychology, Crime and Law is seeking submissions for an upcoming special issue on Cross-cultural issues in psychology and the law. Interested authors should submit manuscripts by 31 December 2022.
4. The German Law Journal invites proposals of special issues for the volume 24 (2023) and volume 25 (2024) on any topic likely to be of interest to the Journal’s readers. The submission deadline is 31 July 2022
5. University of Oslo, PluriCourts, Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order, invites paper proposal for the research project State Consent to International Jurisdiction that scrutinise State consent to international law more broadly. The submission deadline is 25 August and the tentative workshop, to be held online, will be on 29 – 30 September 2022.
6. Ghent University is seeking to hire an assistant professor in the Faculty of Law and Criminology working in the area of European, Public and International Law. Interest applicants should apply by 16 August 2022.

Elsewhere Online

1. Ardita Zeqiri, Kosovo MP’s Call for Media Controls Condemned by Unions, Balkan Insight
2. Madalin Necsutu, EC Rule of Law Report Flags up Several Balkan States, B.I.R.D.
3. Matthijs Bogaards, Autocracy in democracy’s mirror, The Loop
4. Michał Stambulski and Karol Muszyński, The Poverty of Militant Doctrinal Constitutionalism in the European Union, Verfassungsblog
5. Ori Pomson, General Principles of Law Formed Within the International Legal System?, EJIL: Talk!