What’s New in Public Law

–Patrick Yingling, Reed Smith LLP

In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in comparative 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 Comparative Public Law,” please email contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Supreme Court of El Salvador struck down the amnesty law of 1993, opening the way for prosecution of those associated with various war crimes during the country’s civil war.
2. The European Court of Justice released an advisory opinion stating that Asma Bougnaoui, a French Muslim woman who lost her job in 2009 for wearing a head scarf, was unlawfully discriminated against.
3. Turkish police apprehended Alparslan Altan, a member of the country’s Constitutional Court and the most senior judicial figure among scores detained so far following an attempted military coup.
4. South African President Jacob Zuma appointed two Judges of the Constitutional Court.
5. U. S. President Barack Obama expressed concern about the state of democracy in Poland, publicly rebuking the government.
6. The Bahrain High Civil Court ordered al-Wefaq, the main Shiite opposition group in the country, to be dissolved.

In the News

1. Israeli lawmakers passed a controversial law increasing regulation on Israeli human rights organizations.
2. The U.S.Department of Defense announced the transfer of two Guantanamo detainees to Serbia.
3. The Chairperson of the House Committee on Governance in Liberia announced that no referendum will be held on the 25 propositions advanced during the Gbarnga Conference.
4. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition put in a strong showing in Japan’s upper-house election, bolstering his hand in achieving his long-held goal of revising the country’s constitution.
5. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd officially requested the support of his country’s new government to back a bid for the top job at the United Nations.

New Scholarship

1. Nikos Skoutaris, From Britain and Ireland to Cyprus: Accommodating ‘Divided Islands’ in the EU Political and Legal Order, EUI Working Paper AEL 2016/02(2016) (examining two pathways for Scotland and Northern Ireland to remain in the EU)
2. Andrew Friedman, States, Countries and People: Who Should the Second Chamber Speak for? (2016) (examining what factors make up worldwide second chamber design, including sub-national units, population and more traditional cleavages such as ethnolinguistic groupings)
3. Nandini Ramanujam and Stephanie Chow, Towards a Human Dignity Based Approach to Food Security: Lessons from China and India, 11 Frontiers of Law in China 243 (2016) (analyzing the comparative experiences of tackling food security in China and India and adopting an inter-disciplinary approach, which melds legal, economic, and human perspectives to food security)
4. Richard S. Kay, Constitutional Change and Wade’s Ultimate Political Fact, University of Queensland Law Journal (forthcoming) (reviewingW.R. Wade’s classic article on parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, The Basis of Legal Sovereignty, published in 1955)
5. Colin J. Beck, The Comparative Method in Practice: Case Selection and the Social Science Revolution, Social Science History (forthcoming) (examining whether comparative methodology has, in fact, institutionalized within the social sciences using evidence from the entire corpus of comparative studies of revolution published from 1970 to 2009)
6. Erin Daly and James May, Global Environmental Constitutionalism: A Rights-Based Primer for Effective Strategies, in Decision Making in Environmental Law, LeRoy C. Paddock, Robert L. Glicksman, and Nicholas S. Bryner, eds. (2016) (providing an introduction to and overview of the field of global environmental constitutionalism)
7. Iordanis M. Eleftheriadia and Vasilios Vyttas, Creating a Culture of Risk in the Greek Public Administration. A Brief Retrospect on the Memorandum Era, International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (2016) (highlighting risk characteristics and presentation of basic management principles that should govern the operation of public service organizations)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law (ICL Journal) will host a conference on the concept of International Constitutional Law on September 23, 2016 at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). Keynote lectures will be presented by Frederick Schauer and Alexander Somek. To participate please register by September 16, 2016 with the conference office at fegerl@wu.ac.at.
2. The European Journal of International Law invites papers for a symposium on “International Commissions of Inquiry: What Difference Do They Make?” Proposals should be send to ejilcommissionsofinquiry@gmail.com by September 19, 2016.
3. Palestine Works invites candidates to register for the Young Palestinian Lawyers Fellowship Conference, as well as to submit abstracts for competition in the Writing Competition & Workshop on “Rebuilding the Palestinian National Movement: Legal and Political Considerations.” The Conference will take place on August 1-5, 2016 at Birzeit University in Birzeit, Palestine.
4. Lexxion Publisher, King’s College London Centre of European Union Law, and The George Washington University Law School will hold a symposium, Opening Transatlantic Procurement Markets, on September 19, 2016, in London. Abstracts on relevant subjects are welcome on a rolling basis.
5. The University of Washington School of Law’s Center for Advanced Study & Research on Innovation Policy (CASRIP) will host the 2016 Global Innovation Law Summit on July 22, 2016.

Elsewhere Online

1. Ozan Varol, Irony and Tragedy in Turkey’s Coup Attempt, The Huffington Post
2. Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz, Farewell to the Polish Constitutional Court, Verfassungsblog
3. Mohamed Abdelaal, Egypt’s New Cybercrime Law: Another Legislative Failure, Jurist
4. Jemy Gatdula, Philippine Constitution needs amendments on a range of issues, ConstitutionNet
5. Shawn Marie Boyne, “No” Finally Means “No” in Germany, Comparative Law Prof Blog
6. William Partlett, Colombia, New Constitutionalism, and History, Blog of the IACL, AIDC
7. Raise Cajhaila, Emboldening a Country in Distress – The South African Constitutional Court on Nkandla, Blog of the IACL, AIDC
8. Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, The peace process and the Constitution: Constitution making as peace making?, Blog of the IACL, AIDC