What’s New in Public Law

–Silvia Talavera Lodos, PhD Candidate, School of Advanced Studies Sant’Anna

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 Italian Constitutional Court upheld the “Piantedosi” decree, therefore asserting that the arrest of NGO ship is not unconstitutional, while reaffirming the supremacy of international maritime law.
2. A U.S. judge has again blocked the executive order ending birthright citizenship for some US residents, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, this time by certifying the case as a class action.
3. The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily halted Florida from enforcing its new immigration law.
4. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has cleared the path for a conversion therapy ban to be enacted.
5. The Romanian President has submitted a constitutional challenge to a law prohibiting fascist, legionary, racist, and xenophobic organizations and symbols.

In the News

1. Following a legal battle where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling on due process hearings for migrants deported to third countries, eight individuals have been deported to South Sudan.
2. Italy’s Constitutional Court criticized the treatment of migrants in Repatriation Centers (CPRs), requiring legislative intervention to address existing gaps in regulations
3. Dieudonné Kamuleta was re-elected as President of the Constitutional Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
4. In Algeria, the President of the Republic appointed Leïla Aslaoui as President of the Constitutional Court.
5. A South Korean court approved a new arrest warrant for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, placing him in custody over concerns of evidence destruction in his martial law bid.

New Scholarship

1. Mikel Diez Sarasola, EU Mediation in Spain’s Judicial Council Crisis: Refining Dialogic Rule of Law within a Multilevel Constitutional Order (2025) (explores the novel phenomenon of EU political mediation in member states’ internal constitutional disputes, exemplified by its intervention in Spain’s judicial deadlock).
2. Tymon Markiewicz, The Legal Character of Polish Disciplinary Proceedings for Advocates and Legal Advisers in Light of the Case Law of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights (2025) (compares the case law of the Polish Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights to show that, despite not being formally criminal, disciplinary proceedings for Polish advocates and legal advisers have a punitive character.)
3. Katherine Young, Human Rights and Networks, Platforms and Utilities: Positive Rights Connections (2025) (maps the intersections between human rights—particularly economic and social rights—and Networks, Platforms and Utilities (NPU) law, showing how each field shapes and challenges the other in terms of state obligations, accountability, and advocacy, especially regarding rights to housing, water, and healthcare.)
4. Roberto Talenti, Climate neutrality through green growth? Addressing possible tensions between the European green deal and the precautionary principle, (2025) (analyzes the European Green Deal Communication’s reliance on green growth and argues that this approach conflicts with the EU’s precautionary principle, highlighting the legal and environmental risks of framing climate neutrality within a growth-oriented paradigm).
5. David E. Pozen, The Common Law of Constitutional Conventions (2025) (critiques Jill Lepore’s sidelining of constitutional conventions in her advocacy for constitutional change, arguing that despite her historical emphasis on their importance, her reluctance to embrace them today reflects broader progressive anxieties but overlooks the potential of state-level experiences to legitimize and guide future federal constitutional conventions).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The International Law Conference “The Dayton Agreement at 30: Legal Reflections, Politics of Fragmentation and the Future of Peacebuilding” has extended its call for papers until August 3, 2025. The conference will be held from November 28-29.
2. The 7th ASSELLMU Conference on Environmental Law & Digital Transformation invites submissions for its conference to be held at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, UAE, on February 9-10, 2026. The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2025.
3. Georgetown University Law Center will host the Second Annual Legal Philosophy and Constitutional Theory Junior Scholar Conference from Thursday, March 19 to Friday, March 20, 2026. Submissions are due on August 30, 2025.
4. The University of Malta announces a call for conference papers for “Young People’s Voices and Freedom of Expression.” The conference will take place from February 5-7, 2026. Abstracts are due by December 1, 2025.
5. The ANU Law School at the Australian National University in Canberra will host the 6th Annual Symposium on Jurisprudence and Theology on February 13, 2026, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2025. 

Elsewhere Online

1. Maria Antonia Tigre, Maxim Bönnemann and Korey Silverman-Roati, A Blueprint for Rights-Based Climate Action, Verfassungsblog
2. Lucia Serena Rossi, A Legal Scalpel Instead of an Axe, Verfassungsblog
3. Ming-Sung Kuo, On the Dangerous Road to Instantaneous Democracy: Judicial Remedy and the Dismantling of Institutional Decelerator in Trump v CASA, IACL-AIDC Blog
4. Joanna Wils, National implementation of the Nature Restoration Law: a crucial opportunity to address the missing link of environmental justice, European Law Blog.
5. Henry Jiménez Guanipa, De la alarma científica al mandato legal: la Opinión Consultiva y la defensa del planeta, IberICONnect.