What’s New in Public Law

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—Claudia Marchese, Research Fellow in Comparative Public Law at the University of Sassari (Italy)

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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 Slovenia has legalized same-sex marriage and adoption by homosexual couples. The highest Slovenian authority declared that the distinction between heterosexual and homosexual couples resulted in discrimination, which is incompatible with the Slovenian Constitution.
2. On 30 June 2022, the United States Supreme Court handed down its opinion in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, holding by a 6-3 majority that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its statutory authority during the Obama Administration in adopting the Clean Power Plan, a regulation to reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions from existing power plants. 
3. The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia brought an appeal before the Constitutional Court against the new law on the use of languages ​​in schools and the linguistic projects approved by the Parliament of Catalonia, which prevent the application of its sentence that forced that 25% of the classes were in Spanish.
4. The Spanish Constitutional Court has for the first-time recognized gender identity as a fundamental right protected by the Constitution, for which reason the Court has declared illegal any type of discrimination based on this cause.
5. The Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that a school’s refusal to exempt a pupil from religious classes violated the rights to religious freedom of the pupil and her parents.

In the News

1. After the referendum’s vote in favour of the new Constitution, the President of Tunisia received the head of the government to discuss the organization of the upcoming Parliamentary elections and those of the Regional Assembly and territories.
2. On 25 July 2022, U.S. Democrats introduced a bill to establish term limits for Supreme Court justices. The legislation would allow a new justice to take the bench every two years and spend 18 years in active service.
3. On 21 July 2022, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned. The government remains in office only to handle current affairs.
4. The lower house of the Spanish Parliament approved with 187 votes in favor, 152 against and 7 abstentions a reform of the law concerning judicial power that unlocks the renewal of four Constitutional justices.
5. On 26 July 2022 EU energy ministers reached a political agreement on a voluntary reduction of natural gas demand by 15% for this winter. The purpose of this Council regulation is to save gas to prepare for possible disruptions of gas supplies from Russia.

New Scholarship

1. Rosalind Dixon, Tom Ginsburg, Adem Abebe (eds.), Comparative Constitutional Law in Africa (forthcoming 2022) (exploring the rich diversity of African constitutional law).
2. Charles M. Fombad, Nico Steytler (eds.), Constitutionalism and the Economy in Africa (forthcoming 2022) (examining the relationship between the quest for constitutionalism in Africa and economic growth).
3. Michel Rosenfeld, A Pluralist Theory of Constitutional Justice: Assessing Liberal Democracy in Times of Rising Populism and Illiberalism (2022) (providing a systematic account of the central role of distributive justice in the normative legitimation of liberal constitutions).
4. Gabriel L. Negretto (ed.), Redrafting Constitutions in Democratic Regimes: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives (2022) (examining and conceptually developing the relationship between representative and participatory channels of citizen involvement in democratic constitutional rewrites).
5. Ranieri L. Resende, Impeachment: A Mechanism between Political Accountability and Legal Responsibility? Common Law Sources and the Brazilian Originalist Model, Global Journal of Comparative Law 11, 2 (2022) (analysing the legal-political nature of the Brazilian originalist model of impeachment).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Global Summit on Constitutionalism is now accepting submissions for individual papers and fully-formed panels.
2. Constitutional Studies is seeking submissions for an issue devoted to the topic “Slavery and Constitution Making.” The journal is particularly interested in submissions discussing cases from the Global South (other than Brazil), Europe, and the Islamic World. Submissions are requested by end of August 2022.
3. The young comparatists of the Italian Association of Comparative Law propose a call for abstracts for the event “The Adjectives of Justice” that will be held at Sapienza, University of Rome, on 2-3 February 2023. The call for abstracts is aimed at young researchers who are interested in developing a discussion that adopts the tools of legal comparison to investigate the multiple dimensions of the concept of justice. Interested scholars shall submit an abstract of about 750 words (in Italian or English) with a short bibliography by 10 September 2022.
4. The Faculty of Law of the Manipal University, in collaboration with Ranka Public Charitable trust, is organizing 8th edition of Manipal Ranka International Moot Court Competition on Arbitration Law. The competition is open to students pursuing a five-year or three-year LLB programme from a recognised University or Institute. The teams who want to participate in the competition are required to register by 20 August 2022.
5. The Fifth Worldwide Congress of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists will be held on 14-16 June 2023 in Malta. The theme of the Congress is “Mixity in the Private and/or Public Law”. Proposals should be submitted by 15 October 2022.

Elsewhere Online

1. Aleksandra Kuczerawy, Lidia Dutkiewicz, Accessing Information about Abortion. The Role of Online Platforms Under the EU Digital Services Act, Verfassungsblog.
2. Diego Werneck Arguelhes, Weak, but (very) Dangerous. The Bolsonaro Paradox, Verfassungsblog.
3. Aristi Volou,  When National Laws and Human Rights Standards Are at Odds, Verfassungsblog.
4. Derrick Wyatt, A majority vote in two referendums? Putting off Indyref2 should not delay a UK rethink on how to handle the issue of Scottish independence, LSE blog.
5. Aakanksha Saxena, Notes from a Foreign Field: The US Supreme Court’s Abortion Judgment in Dobbs v Jackson, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy.
6. Theunis Roux, What does the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs tell us about the virtues of Australia’s approach to protecting fundamental rights?, AUSPUBLAW.
7. David Super, Functioning with a Short-Handed Senate, Balkinization.
8. Joseph Geng Akech, To whom it may concern: South Sudan may not be ready for elections, yet democracy cannot wait, AfricLaw.