What’s New in Public Law

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–Wilson Seraine da Silva Neto, Master Student at the University of Coimbra – Portugal; Postgraduate in Constitutional Law at Brazilian Academy of Constitutional Law

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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 Uganda declared null and void a colonial law that punished begging, finding that the law was ambiguous and violated freedom of movement.
2. The Constitutional Court of Slovakia ruled that parts of the so-called pro-family package, re-approved by Parliament in June after being vetoed by President Zuzana Caputova, contradict the Slovak Constitution by violating constitutional rules on budgetary responsibility and transparency.
3. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany held the Next Generation EU programme (NGEU), the economic recovery package which issues EU bonds to finance loans and grants to member states, is lawful as a crisis response.
4. The U.S. Supreme Court grants review in a second challenge to Biden’s student-debt relief plan. The justices previously agreed to hear a challenge from red states; now they add a challenge from borrowers. Both cases will be heard in the February argument session.
5. The Slovenia Constitutional Court annulled the controversial Swiss franc loans act. The court said conditions for retroactivity had not been met. The Bank Association said the rule of law had prevailed.

In the News

1. Former president of Peru Pedro Castillo has prison extended to 18 months after the coup attempt.
2. The Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously struck down a Kentucky law creating a generous tax credit to help families pay for tuition at private schools by declaring the Education Opportunity Account Act unconstitutional.
3. The Portuguese Assembly of the Republic voted and approved the decriminalization of medically assisted death (euthanasia). The decree is now being finalized for approval by the President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
4. The President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, strongly condemned the Constitutional Court ruling to abolish the RS Law on Medicines and Medical Devices, arguing that it was a “political” decision.
5. The former president of Guinea’s Constitutional Court, Mohamed Lamine Bangoura was charged and has been sent to prison by the Court of Repression of Economic and Financial Offences.
6. The District Court of Frankfurt am Main ruled that Twitter is obligated to delete false tweets or those that violate honor when requested by the interested party.

New Scholarship

1. Hugo Moreira Lima Sauaia (editor), O ativismo judicial e os desafios da jurisdição constitucional (2022) (In homage to Professor Elival da Silva Ramos (USP), the authors of this work present multiple, plural, holistic and independent perspectives on what has been agreed to be called judicial activism).
2. Tom Ginsburg and Benjamin Schonthal, Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law (2022), Open Access (offers the first comprehensive account of the entanglements of Buddhism and constitutional law in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tibet, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan).
3. Manfred Stelzer, The Constitution of the Republic of Austria (2022) (the book shows how the Austrian Constitution has been shaped and interpreted by the fundamental events in Austria’s modern history including the COVID-19 pandemic – discount code (which is GLR CA4UK and that will give readers 35% off the book when ordered on www.bloomsbury.com)
4. Richard Albert, The Architecture of Constitutional Amendments (2022) (this innovative book blends constitutional theory with real-life political practice to explore the impact of codifying constitutional amendments on the operation of the constitution concerning democracy, the rule of law, and the separation of powers).
5. Richard Albert, David Landau, Pietro Faraguna, Simon Drugda, Rocío De Carolis, The 2021 Global Review of Constitutional Law (2022) (this 2021 edition of the Global Review assembles detailed but relatively brief reports on constitutional developments and cases during the past calendar year in 75 jurisdictions).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Glaw Globalization & Law Network and Maastricht Centre for European Law invite young European law scholars (i.e. all scholars who have not yet secured a full professorship) to submit paper proposals on the topic of ‘The Future of EU Fundamental Rights’ by 31 January 2023. The 6th Young European Law Scholars Conference will be held on 1-2 June 2023 at Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
2. The Social Science MDPI Journal invites contributions to the Special Issue “Contemporary Local Governance, Wellbeing and Sustainability” by guest editor Prof. Dr Pedro Miguel Alves Ribeiro Correia. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2023.
3. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research (UCILeR) invites you to the III Conference Red urteram AL/EU: Building an integrated and sustainable territory that will be held by 20-21 January 2023.
4. The Maharashtra National Law University is inviting submissions through a call for papers to the 1st National Conference on Tourism Laws. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 31 December 2022 and the conference will be 28-29 March 2023.
5. The International Society of Public Law invites you to the ICON-S Annual Conference on “Islands and Ocean: Public Law in a Plural World”, in New Zealand, on 3–5 July 2023. The first submission cycle is open until 31 January 2023, and the second cycle will open in early February 2023.

Elsewhere Online

1. Deniz Polat, Turkey’s Endless Test with Artistic Freedom: The Case of Sezen Aksu, IACL-AIDC Blog.
2. Andy Kroll, Andrew Perez and Aditi Ramaswami, Conservative Activist Poured Millions Into Groups Seeking to Influence Supreme Court on Elections and Discrimination, ProPublica.
3. Jennifer Rubin, There is a path to save the Supreme Court from itself, The Washington Post.
4. Kate Brady, German judiciary and the far-right, DW
5. Podcast, Checks and Balance: Justice deserts, The Economist