— Azeem Amedi, LLM in Legal and Political Theory, University of York
— Guy Baldwin, Lecturer in Law, University of Manchester
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
- The Supreme Court of India found that the failure to provide for same-sex marriage was not unconstitutional.
- The Indonesian Constitutional Court ruled, in judicial review of the Election Law, that a person younger than the age of 40 could run for the presidency provided that the person had previously held a regional elected office.
- The High Court of Australia held that a state charge for the operator of a zero or low emissions vehicle was unconstitutional because it imposed a duty of excise, a power exclusive to the Commonwealth Parliament.
- The Italian Constitutional Court decided that the execution of a European arrest warrant should never expose the requested person to a serious health risk, since this would amount to inhuman or degrading treatment.
- The Georgian Constitutional Court approved a request to begin impeachment processes against the President of Georgia in respect of foreign visits conducted without government approval.
In the News
- The Australian public voted down a proposed constitutional amendment to enshrine an advisory body (Voice) representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- The United States House of Representatives continued not to have a speaker, after Representative Jim Jordan failed in his bid for the position.
- Polish opposition parties won a general election, unseating the Law and Justice party that has been in power since 2015.
- The war between Israel and Hamas continued with ongoing Israeli airstrikes, which the Israel Defense Forces said were directed at Hamas targets following its attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, and rockets fired from Gaza at Israel.
- The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice is under scrutiny after relocating inmates from overcrowded prisons to open ones without conducting pre-transfer assessments.
- The German Federal Government produced a policy to facilitate Ukrainian and other refugees to obtain jobs in the labour market.
- Legal ethics groups pushed for an ethics investigation of the Chief Justice of the Indonesian Constitutional Court following its election ruling.
- Lee Jong-seok was named as the next chief of South Korea’s Constitutional Court.
New Scholarship
- Adrienne Stone, Lael K Weis and Stijn Smet, Editorial (launching the new Comparative Constitutional Studies journal)
- Ibnu Sina Chandranegara, Architecture of Indonesia’s Checks and Balances (discussing the origins of the current Indonesian checks and balances system)
- Bertus de Villiers, Breathing Life into the Constitution: the Transformative Role of Courts to Give a Unique Identity to a Constitution (analysing how courts around the world can direct constitutionalism in their respective states, giving birth to a ‘transformative constitutionalism’).
- Guy Baldwin, Freedom of Religion under the Australian Constitution: Is Proportionality the Answer? (critiquing the adoption of structured proportionality in Australian constitutional law)
- Saskia Stucki, Animal Warfare Law and the Need for an Animal Law of Peace: A Comparative Reconstruction (drawing a novel analogy between animal welfare law and international humanitarian law)
Calls for Papers and Announcements
- The International Congress on the Head of State in Parliamentary Monarchies is due to take place in Madrid on 23–25 April 2024. Abstracts are due by 1 March 2024.
Elsewhere Online
- Anmol Jain, Using the Constitution for Partisan Benefits (18 October 2023)
- Thomas Horsley, Managing the External Effects of Devolved Legislation: Virtual Representation, Self-Rule and the UK’s Territorial Constitution (5 October 2023)
- Artun Mimar, Protecting the Right to Property: How Will the Turkish Constitutional Court React to the Spate of Taxation Measures? (26 September 2023)
- Tom Hickman KC, Candour Inside-Out: Disclosure in Judicial Review (16 October 2023)
- Maciej Bernatt, Market Power, Democracy and (Un)Fair Elections (16 October 2023)
- Yaniv Roznai and Amichai Cohen, Post-Populist Populism (19 October 2023)
Comments