What’s New in Public Law

—Yassin Abdalla Abdelkarim, Judge at Luxor Elementary Court, Egypt. LLM Leeds Beckett University, UK.

–Jose Mario de la Garza-Martins, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Theory, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico

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 Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court decided the unconstitutionality of the last paragraph of Article 243 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedures, on motions for reconsideration, because it includes the composition of the court, which decides on the motion, of the same judges who gave the original judgment. The Court decided the violation of this paragraph to Article 96 of the Egyptian Constitution (2014) on the guarantees of fair trial. 
2. In South Korea, the Constitutional Court decided that Article 20, Section (2) of the Medical Service Act violates the Constitution on fetal sex. The Court justified its opinion by claiming the failure of this legal text to achieve the legislative purpose of protecting fetal life and satisfy the least restrictive means test by excessively limiting the right of parents to gain access to the information of the sex of their fetus without interference.
3. The Constitutional Court in Malaysia emphasised that the Parliament should comply with Article 71(4) of the Federal Constitution concerning the principle of separation of powers.
4. The Supreme Court of the United States issued a unanimous ruling that former President Donald Trump is eligible to appear on the ballot, effectively reversing a decision made by the Colorado Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision emphasized that disqualifying a presidential candidate falls under the purview of Congress, not individual states, highlighting the constitutional mandate that federal enforcement of Section 3 is the responsibility of Congress rather than the states. This ruling has broader implications, likely preventing similar efforts to block Trump from the ballot in other states.
5. In the case of Viteri Ungaretti and others vs. Ecuador, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held Ecuador responsible for sanctions against Julio Rogelio Viteri Ungaretti following his corruption allegations within the Armed Forces. The court found that Ecuador violated rights to freedom of thought and expression, personal liberty against arbitrary detention, and judicial review of detention legality. Additionally, it determined Viteri’s right to job stability was breached, and his family’s rights were also violated.
6. The Mexican Supreme Court (“SCJN”) declared as unconstitutional the provisions in the Reform to the Electricity Industry Law, which were proposed by the Federal Executive in 2021. This occurred on Jan. 31, 2024, and the principal effect of the Reform was to benefit the State Productive Entity, CFE, in the order of dispatch of power generated by it over private generators (including renewables).

In the News

1. The President of the OBT (Council for the Judiciary of Hungary) has informed the President of the ENCJ of the current situation of judicial salaries in Hungary as a response to the deterioration of domestic judges’ salaries crisis.
2. Cannabis possession and home cultivation will be decriminalized in Germany from April 1 after the law passed the final hurdle in the Bundesrat, the chamber of the federal states, on Friday. The law will permit adults over the age of 18 to possess 25 grams of cannabis and grow up to three plants at home.
3. The US Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general filed a sweeping antitrust case against Apple, accusing the $2.6 trillion company of violating antitrust law through its control of the iPhone, and raising costs for consumers, developers, artists and others.
4. A U.S. judge on Monday ruled that the Mexican government could move forward with a lawsuit accusing five Arizona gun dealers of participating in the trafficking of weapons and ammunition to drug cartels across the U.S.-Mexico border.
5. President Gustavo Petro is trying to build popular support for his bid to overhaul Colombia’s constitution, which faces long odds of success given legislative and judicial hurdles.
6. Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have unanimously ordered Israel to take all the necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinian population in Gaza.

New Scholarship

1. Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Nadine Strossen, Oxford University Press. This book provides an original, comprehensive framework for integrating the Supreme Court’s many disparate–even inconsistent–free speech rulings into a coherent overall scheme.
2. Comparative Law: A Very Short Introduction, Prof Sabrina Ragone and Prof Guido Smorto, Oxford University Press. The book offers a modern and syncretic assessment of legal comparison, combining the perspectives of public and private law.
3. Public Interest Considerations in US Merger Control: An Assessment of National Security and Sectoral Regulators, Ioannis Kokkoris, Oxford University Press. The book compares US merger control enforcement across industry sectors and the different approaches applied by different agencies.
4. Law Is a Moral Practice. Scott Hershovits. The book supplies fresh answers to fundamental questions about the nature of law and helps us better appreciate why we disagree about law so deeply.
5. America’s Unwritten Constitution. Akhil Reed Amar. In this sequel to America’s Constitution: A Biography, Amar takes readers on a tour of our nation’s unwritten Constitution, showing how America’s foundational document cannot be understood in textual isolation. 
6. Freedom Undone. The Assault on Liberal Values in Hong Kong. Professor Michael Davis, a close observer who taught human rights and development in the city for three decades, takes us on the constitutional journey of both the city’s vigorous defense of freedom and its repressive undoing—a painful loss for Hong Kong and a lesson for the world.

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. Call for papers – Technium Social Sciences Journal (vol. 56/2023) highly regarded, monthly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, and open-access journal. The journal provides a platform for scholars, scientists, students, and professionals to showcase their latest findings and advancements in various fields, including Law, Communication Sciences, Economics, Psychology, Education, and Political Science.
2. International Journal of Law Mgmt & Humanities [Vol 7, Issue 2 (Issue 39) a bi-monthly, Double-Blind, Peer-Reviewed International Journal (ISSN: 2581-5369) working in the Law, Management & Humanities arena. Presently the Editorial team of IJLMH consists of Well-known and widely recognised professors and professionals from India, France, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Cameroon, and Nigeria.
3. Conference: British Crime Historians:  The British Crime Historians Symposium meets every 2-3 years to discuss and debate original historical research on all aspects of crime, policing, punishment, law, criminal justice and social regulation. The conference will be held on 5-6 September 2024 and will be jointly hosted by the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University.
4. Equity by Project Juris [JVolume 1, Issue 1; No Publication Fee]: The editorial board of Project Juris is inviting applications of original and unpublished papers for the upcoming print of ‘Equity’: The International Commercial Law Journal; Volume 1 Issue 1.
5. Journal of Applicable Law & Jurisprudence: CALR Journal of Applicable Law & Jurisprudence (CALR | JAL&J) is a reputed international online research paper, journal, thesis and conference paper publishing subset- company under CALR headquartered at Dehradun, India.
6. IDIA-ICUL Essay Writing Competitions. IDIA Rajasthan Chapter is thrilled to announce its inaugural Essay Writing Competition in partnership with IC Universal Legal. The collaboration aims to bring together legal minds in a collective effort to delve into the contemporary issues of law. 

Elsewhere Online

1. Wieder and Guarnieri v UK: A Justifiably Expansive Approach to the Extraterritorial Application of the Right to Privacy in Surveillance Cases by Marko Milanovic.
2. First war crimes conviction at the KSC: Developing jurisprudence and the right to reparations by Anni Pues.
3. Catch-22: exploring the escape routes for Gazans by Ka Lop Yip.
4. Defending Democracy: The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy is launching its inquiry into “Defending Democracy” to better understand how threats to the UK’s democracy may evolve and be addressed.
5. The High Court of Lesotho nullified the 9^th Amendment to the Constitution declaring it unconstitutional.