What’s New in Public Law

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—Nicola Abate, PhD Candidate, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona

—Recep Orhun Kılıç, PhD Student, Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli 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 Colombian Constitutional Court protects the fundamental rights of a trans and Afro-descendant woman fired in a discriminatory way and because of her gender identity.
2. The Supreme Court of Canada has restored the conviction of an Ontario man after determining that evidence obtained from an unlawful sobriety stop was nonetheless admissible.
3. The Norwegian Supreme Court unanimously rejected a Latvian fishing company’s right claim to catch snow crab on the continental shelf around Svalbard. Beyond the snow crab, this case is seen as an important test of who would control the resources underlying the continental shelf.
4. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the freedom of expression of a person who is not allowed to distribute religious pamphlets on campus without permission from the university is not violated.
5. The U.S. Supreme Court decided that requirement in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to pursue all available admin procedures does not bar the student’s lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act because the relief he seeks is not something the IDEA can provide.
6. First CJEU interpretation of exception to Schengen double jeopardy rules, allowing a Member State to bring a second prosecution where the alleged offence threatens its security or equivalent interests.
7. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitutional Court on Thursday temporarily repealed a controversial immovable property law in the Republika Srpska entity.
8. The Constitutional Court in Kuwait has annulled the 2022 parliamentary elections for the country’s National Assembly, and announced the return to the previous parliament, which was elected in 2020.
9. Spain’s Constitutional Court votes to uphold euthanasia law.
10. The UK Supreme Court ruled that Ukraine can defend the lawsuit at trial on the basis that Russia’s threats of military force amounted to illegitimate pressure on Ukraine to assume the $3 billion debt.
11. The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the state constitution includes “an inherent right of a pregnant woman to terminate a pregnancy when necessary to save her life.”
12. Thailand’s Constitutional Court has decided to consider a petition challenging the constitutionality of the government’s Executive Decree postponing the enforcement of key provisions of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act.

In the News

1. International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova. According to the Court “President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute).”
2. The Justice Department of the United States has requested the Supreme Court to uphold a federal law which criminalises possession of firearms by individuals who are under restraining orders for domestic violence.
3. Finnish President signs NATO accession law.
4. According to researchers, the score obtained in the Bar exam indicates that artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of keeping pace with “human lawyers.”
5. In agreement with Borrell, Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement on the normalisation of their relations.
6. The president of the French National Assembly starts the référendum d’initiative partagée (RIP) procedure for the pension reform bill.
7. Request for constitutionality review to the Conseil constitutionnel on pension reform.
8. Significant and positive developments on the negotiation of EU accession to the ECHR in the recent meeting of the CDDH ad hoc negotiation group.
9. Important developments in the future of UK-EU relations with the publication of the statutory instrument on the Windsor Framework. 
10. The Australian ‘the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights’ is inviting submissions on issues about both Commonwealth and State/Territory human rights law.
11. Jamaica has appointed a Constitutional Reform Committee for providing expert guidance for the transition from a Constitutional Monarchy to a Republic.
12. The European Court of Human Rights has convicted Turkey for violating the rights of three of the academics who were dismissed and put on trial for signing a 2016 declaration criticising the government over the conflict in the country’s Kurdish-majority regions. The Court ruled that their rights to education and respect for one’s private life were violated.
13. The chief justice of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has received the backing of a majority of the court’s judges after a group of rebels who no longer recognise her legitimacy attempted to begin the process of nominating a replacement.
14. The European Commission announced that it will bring Poland to the European Union Court of Justice because of two contentious verdicts given by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. These rulings held that the Polish constitution takes priority over the law of the European Union.
15. A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Thursday upheld a judge’s ruling blocking enforcement of President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order requiring all federal employees take a COVID-19 vaccine.
16. Moldovan parliament and after then Moldovan president approves law to rename Romanian as state language.

New Scholarship

1. T.  Endicott, H. D. Kristjánsson, and S. Lewis (edited by), “Philosophical Foundations of Precedent” (philosophical investigation of the nature and importance of precedents in legal reasoning).
2. G. Martinico, “The Tangled Complexity of the EU Constitutional Process. The Frustrating Knot of Europe” (analysing the nature of the constitutional process of the European Union and its latest constitutional conflicts).
3. M. Crouch, “Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia” (examining the origins, development, and influence of the Constitution on Indonesian constitutional democracy).
4. W. F. Baber, J.  R. May (edited by), “Environmental Human Rights in the Anthropocene. Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges” (documenting the current state of environmental human rights knowledge, unanswered strategically critical questions, and the initiatives required to develop those answers).
5. D. Kochenov, “EU Rule of Law Today: Limiting, Excusing, or Abusing Power?” (analysing the rule of law crisis in the European Union and the democratic backsliding).
6. F. Fabbrini, “The ‘European’ Future of American Abortion Law: Dobbs, Federalism and Constitutional Equality” (comparative examination of the Dobbs ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in the light of the European experience).
7. J. F. Mitchell, “Why Was Roe v. Wade Wrong?” (analysis of the constitutional basis of Roe and its relationship with the other court-created rights)
8. A. Saunders, “Constitution-Making as a Technique of International Law: Reconsidering the Post-War Inheritance” (reimagining constitutionalism and constitution-making as a technique of international law).
9. P. Iamiceli and F. Cafaggi, “The Courts and Effective Judicial Protection during the Covid-19 Pandemic. A Comparative Analysis” (an analysis of the role of the courts during the pandemic crisis in a comparative perspective).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. International symposium on “Governing Artificial Intelligence: Designing Legal and Regulatory Responses” will be held in Brussels on 23 May 2023. The deadline for submissions is 7 April 2023.
2. University of College London is accepting applications until April 31, 2023 for the “Law and Ethics Symposium”, which is held every two years. “The Boundaries of Corporations’ Responsibility” is the theme of the symposium to be held in October.
3. “2023 Law and Development Conference”, which will be held on 8-9 December 2023 under the title of “Law and Development Post the Pandemic” in Singapore, is accepting abstracts until 1 May 2023.
4. “Legal Information: Scholarship & Teaching” conference will be held in Boston, on July 14, 2023. Deadline for sending drafts is May 10, 2023.
5. Conference on “International Law and the Regulation of Resort to Force: Exhaustion, Destruction, Rebirth?” will be held on September 14-15, 2023 in Olomouc, the Czech Republic and the deadline for applications is 30 March 2023. 
6. Junior Scholar Workshop of the Asian Society of International Law will be held in Indonesia. Deadline for sending drafts is 30 April 2023. 
7. Call for Applications: “re:constitution Fellowships 2023/2024” for working and publishing on an issue related to democracy and the rule of law in Europe.
8. Registration for the 30th annual conference (29 June – 01 July 2023) of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law at Victoria University Law School is now open.
9. The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities invites submissions for the Julien Mezey Dissertation Award. Applicants eligible for the 2023 award must have defended their dissertations successfully between March 2022 and March 2023. Deadline for applications is April 14, 2023.
10. The American Society for Legal History invites submissions for the annual Kathryn T. Preyer Award. Submissions are welcome on any topic in legal, institutional, and/or constitutional history. Deadline for submissions is April 1, 2023.
11. The University of Central Florida will host the “Holocaust Perpetrators and the Law” conference. The deadline for the conference, which will take place on April 8-9, 2024, is August 1, 2023.
12. Call for papers for ILCEA issue 55: “Abortion across Borders: the case of the United Kingdom and North America”. Deadline is June 30, 2023
13. On 21 and 22 September 2023, the conference “From Rule of Law Backsliding to a Sustainable Rule of Law” will take place in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Applications should be submitted before May 15, 2023.
14. The Anglo-German Law Journal is accepting submissions on topics of comparative law issues, current developments in Germany and the UK, European law or case notes.

Elsewhere Online

1. Debate on the Verfassungsblog to explore the theme “50 Years On: Ireland and the UK In and Out of the EU”.
2. Professor A. von Bogdandy reflects on the state of progressive constitutionalism on the basis of the Chilean constitutional project.
3. A. Harel and A. Klement on the ongoing Israelian constitutional crisis.
4. Debate on the new book written by M. Cartabia and N. Lupo on the features of the Italian Constitution.
5. Italian legal philosopher Ferrajoli criticises Italian political management of immigration and NGOs.
6. T. Violante analyses the complicated path of assisted dying in Portugal.
7. Professor K. Abbott Abbot discusses trends in international criminal law and the Commonwealth.
8. G. Ablavsky and W. T. Allread the problematic relationship between indigenous people and the US constitution.
9. J. Elwood discusses the development in the abortion cases of the U.S. Supreme Court.
10. Legal analysis of the consequences of Windsor Framework on the relation between EU and UK by S. Peers.
11. O. Perez and N. Wimez reflect on the new frontiers and relations between AI and constitutionalism.