What’s New in Public Law

–Maja Sahadžić, Ph.D. Researcher (University of Antwerp)

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 contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld a judgment that directs Google to block a company’s website from its global search results.
2. The Constitutional Court of Egypt suspended all previous court orders concerning the Red Sea Islands agreement.
3. The South African Constitutional Court struck down sections of the Immigration Act, which allowed for immigrants to be detained without a court hearing.
4. The US Supreme Court partially reinstated the president’s travel order.
5. The Turkish Constitutional Court denied hunger strikers’ demand to be released from jail and rejected the application for partial annulment of the Press Law article which regulates the obligation of publishers to publish corrections and reply texts.
6. The Constitutional Court in Romania outlined cases where convicts can become government members.
7. The Austrian Constitutional Court overturned a ban on construction of Vienna Airport’s third runway and upheld the government action to seize the apartment complex in which Hitler was born.
8. The High Court in Georgia ruled that the state cannot be sued over the Abortion Law without its consent, but that state officials can be sued as individuals to prevent them from enforcing laws alleged to violate the state Constitution.

In the News

1. The German Parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage.
2. The President of Ukraine called on Rada MPs to vote for the constitutional amendments on the abolition of parliamentary immunity.
3. The Referendum Council in Australia is set to deliver a final report suggesting the recognition of indigenous Australians in the constitution.
4. The National Assembly of Nigeria proposed a constitutional amendment to restructure judiciary.
5. The Japanese PM Shinzo Abe accelerated the agenda to amend the pacifist Constitution.
6. The Parliament of Czech Republic voted to legalize firearm ownership against the European Union gun control rules.
7. The President of Georgia opposes a new draft Constitution because it was not based on a consensus.
8. The first amendment to the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe reached a voting stage.
9. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea proposed to expand the category of basic rights from “citizens” to “people.”
10. Kenya’s opposition alliance proposed amendments to the Constitution that would provide for a hybrid executive system.
11. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was granted a leave to challenge the abortion case before the Supreme Court.
12. The Supreme Court in Venezuela was attacked. A helicopter dropped grenades on the building and fired shots at the Interior Ministry.

New Scholarship

1. Valentina Rita Scotti, On the pro-hegemonic nature of referenda for constitutional reforms in Turkey: A focus on 16 April 2017 referendum introducing presidentialism, Osservatorio Costituzionale (2017) (examining the 2017 referendum on constitutional amendments in Turkey as a pro-hegemonic device)
2. Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Anware Mnasri, and Estee Ward, Women and the Making of the Tunisian Constitution, 35 Berkeley Journal of International Law (2017) (analyzing women’s engagement in Tunisia’s constitution-making process)
3. Stéphanie De Somer, Autonomous Public Bodies and the Law, A European Perspective (2017) (discussing the impact of EU law on the autonomous public bodies and recent attempts of European states to rationalize delegation to APBs)
4. Gábor Halmai, Second-Grade Constitutionalism? The Cases of Hungary and Poland (2017) (exploring variations in the application of the EU shared values of rule of law and democracy in Hungary and Poland)
5. Alexander Tsesis, Constitutional Ethos, Liberal Equality for the Common Good (2017) (developing a unique theory of constitutional law structured on the public duty to protect individual rights for the general welfare).
6. Chintan Chandrachud, Balanced Constitutionalism Courts and Legislatures in India and the United Kingdom (2017) (comparing judicial review under the Indian Constitution and the UK Human Rights Act)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Humboldt University of Berlin organizes the international conference “The Global South in Comparative Constitutional Law,” in Berlin, on July 13-14, 2017.
2. Cornell Law School organizes the 12th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies in Ithaca on October 13-14, 2017.
3. The Asian Journal of Comparative Law welcomes submission for its 2018 issue.
4. The University of Illinois College of Law, the University of Bologna School of Law, and the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development welcome paper proposals for the Third Annual Illinois-Bologna conference on “Constitutional History: Comparative Perspectives” in Bologna, November 13-14, 2017.
5. Azores University invites submissions for the Second International Conference on Election and Democracy under the theme “Develop and Protect Humanity,” in Ponta Delgada, on October 27, 2017. The deadline for full paper submission is due by August 15, 2017.
6. Faculty of Shariah and Law of the State Islamic University invites applications for the International Conference on “Law and Justice, Good Governance and Human Rights in Muslim Countries, Experiences and Challenges,” in Jakarta, on November 7-8, 2017. The submission deadline is July 31, 2017.
7. The Government of Canada invites applications for the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships to highly motivated and competitive doctoral students. The submission deadline is November 1, 2017.
8. Melbourne Law School welcomes applications for two Ph.D. scholarships for the Australian Laureate Fellowship Program in Comparative Constitutional Law. The submission deadline is July 9, 2017.
9. The SJD Society at Emory University School of Law invites abstracts for its Annual Graduate Student Conference on “Populism and the Rule of Law,” in Atlanta, on October 12-13, 2017. The submission deadline is July 15, 2017.
10. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation invites applications for the Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers.
11. The Politics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Political Theory. The submission deadline is September 29, 2017.
12. The University of Leicester welcomes applications for a Lecturer in Law position. The submission deadline is July 5, 2017.

Elsewhere Online

1. Michael Keating, The nation-state is dead. Long live the nation-state, Academia
2. Munkhsaikhan Odonkhuu, Mongolia’s (flawed) experiment with deliberative polling in constitutional reform, ConstitutionNet
3. Gerhard van der Schyff, One year after the Brexit Referendum: More, Fewer or No Referendums in Europe?, Verfassungsblog
4. Byron Karemba, Provision of Abortion Services, the Territorial Constitution and the Supreme Court, UK Constitutional Law Association
5. Adam Liptak, A Cautious Supreme Court Sets a Modern Record for Consensus, New York Times
6. Nomfundo Ramalekana, Balancing the Scales in Eviction Cases in South Africa: A Note on Occupiers of erven 87 & 88 Berea v Christiaan Frederick De Wet, OxHRH
7. Feroze Varun Gandhi, For a more representative House, The Hindu
8. Ken Lukyamuzi, Uganda: We Should Resist Periodic Constitutional Amendments, The Monitor
9. Cathy Buckle, Who will guard the guards in Zim’s fraught Constitution, Biz News
10. Situ Aung Myint, The contentious issue of non-secession need not be an obstacle to a final agreement to emerge from the Union peace conferences, Frontier
11. Mei-Hua Chen, An incomplete equality: Taiwan moves to legalize same-sex marriage, Asia & Pacific Policy Society