What’s New in Public Law

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–Wilson Seraine da Silva Neto, Master in Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Lawyer.

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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 Indian Supreme Court reserved its judgment on the matter related to the market regulator’s probe into the Adani-Hindenburg case.
2. The Indian Supreme Court held that a law proposed by a State legislature is not extinguished merely because the Governor refuses to sign his assent.
3. Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has ruled to freeze €25bn of funding through Germany’s Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) to German Rail (DB), agreed by the German cabinet in August as part of an additional €40bn to be provided for the national rail network over the four years to 2027.
4. Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled that a move to redirect €60bn of unused debt from the pandemic era to a climate fund was unconstitutional.
5. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Florida’s request to allow it to temporarily enforce a law that makes it a misdemeanor to allow children at drag performances.
6. The U.K. Supreme Court has ruled that Deliveroo riders are not employees and therefore, can’t be represented by unions for collective pay negotiation power.

In the News

1. The Brazilian Senate approved a constitutional amendment bill that stipulates that laws or measures decided by Brazil’s Congress can only be overruled by the full plenary of the top court or a chamber of justices and not by just one of them. The bill will now be considered by the Chamber of Deputies.
2. The Parliament of Montenegro has elected Faruk Rasulbegović as the seventh judge of the Constitutional Court. This concludes the process of appointing judges to the Constitutional Court that began in 2020.
3. Anwar Usman, a Indonesian Constitutional Court Judge ousted from his position as chief justice due to a controversial ruling favoring the president’s son, initiated legal action against his successor, Chief Justice Suhartoyo,
4. Argentina has elected Javier Milei as its new president.
5. A prosecutor has been assigned to investigate the criminal complaint made by the Court of Cassation against all the nine members of the Turkish Constitutional Court.

New Scholarship

1. Flávio Jardim, Rodrigo Becker, David Sobreira (editors). Suprema Corte dos Estados Unidos: Casos Eleitorais (2023) (analyzes landmark election cases from the U.S. Supreme Court).
2. Nico Krisch and Ezgi Yildiz. The Many Paths of Change in International Law (2023) (presents the first comprehensive account exploring how international law changes through means other than treaty-making).
3. Leah Trueblood. Referendums as Representative Democracy (2023) (this book offers an alternative theory of referendums whereby they are one of many ordinary ways that voters give direction to their representatives).
4. Richard Albert. The Constitution America Could Have Had (2023) (in this lecture delivered at the University of Pittsburgh, the author digs into America’s past to excavate the Constitution the country could have had).
5. Rafał Mańko. Exceptio Popularis: Resisting Illiberal Legality (2023) (this text puts forward the novel concept of exceptio popularis or the minor state of exception, defined as a situation in which the constituted power, under pressure from the people amounting to a tumultus suspends the operation of a certain legal norm which is the object of the people’s unrest)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The 2024 ICON-S Annual Conference, titled “The Future of Public Law: Resilience, Sustainability, and Artificial Intelligence”, will take place in Madrid, Spain, at IE University, on the 8 to10 July 2024. All ICON-S members can submit their individual abstracts and propose fully formed panels on any theme that is relevant for public law (including constitutional law, administrative law, and international law) by 11 February.
2. The II Luso-Brazilian Congress of Philosophy of Law will take place in Coimbra, Portugal on the 4 to 6 April 2024. Congress welcomes abstracts until 16 December 2023.
3. The National Constitution Center invites you to the seminar “Democracy, Populism, and the Tyranny of the Minority”, with Frances Lee, Steven Levitsky and Kurt Weyland, to explore some of the new theories and approaches to the challenges facing American democracy in 2023 and beyond, including proposed solutions. The event will take place on 27 November 2023 at Zoom.
4. The Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra has open applications for the Post-Doctoral Program in Law 2024-2025. The first round runs from 02 January to 29 February 2024. And the second round runs from 02 May to 30 June 2024.
5. The Getúlio Vargas Foundation invites you to the webinar “Direito do trabalho e justiça do trabalho na perspectiva constitucional” that will take place on 30 November 2023 at Youtube FGV Channel.

Elsewhere Online

1. Guy Chazan,  How Germany’s ‘debt brake’ broke the budget, Financial Times
2. KN Pandita, Erdogan Abhors Independence Of Turkey’s Judiciary & Democracy, Attacks Political Opponents Through Courts, The Eurasian Times
3. Charles Geyh, The new SCOTUS Code of Conduct, SCOTUSblog
4. Oliver Pieper, What to expect from populist President Milei, DW
5. Carna Pistan, Why are illiberal monuments legally possible? Some insights from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Verfassungsblog