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 Iraq held a Kurdish referendum unconstitutional.
2. The Supreme Court of Israel rejected a petition by Jordan Valley Arab residents demanding to be allowed to cultivate their lands near the community of Hamra, presently being used by Jews.
3. The Supreme Court of Canada to hear a case about whether an internet service provider can charge a fee for revealing information about a suspected movie pirate to film producers.
4. The Supreme Court of Sweden ruled against growing cannabis to self-medicate.
5. The Supreme Court of India to hear a plea against releasing the movie ‘Padmavati’ outside India.
6. A federal judge in the United States of America blocks President’s transgender military ban.
7. The Constitutional Court of Zambia ordered former cabinet ministers to pay back the salaries and allowances they got whilst Parliament was dissolved.
8. The Constitutional Court of Italy upheld a bill for mandatory vaccines.
9. The Supreme Court of Kenya upheld the last month’s re-election of the President.

In the News

1. The first Jewish justice joins the Supreme Court of Argentina.
2. The Prime Minister of Slovenia is facing impeachment over his support for a refugee.
3. The Angolan President appoints judges of the Constitutional Court of Angola.
4. The Myanmar parliament approves the establishment of two new ministries.
5. A South Australian senator resigns from the Australian parliament over British dual citizenship.
6. A fifth of the Westminster staff says they have been bullied in the Parliament.
7. The Congress of Judges in Ukraine appoints a controversial judge to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
8. Czech police requested that the country’s parliament remove the immunity of the member of the parliament.
9. The French parliament plans an investigation into nuclear security.
10. The Constitutional Court judges in Thailand spared from being immediately removed under the “set-zero” principle.  
11. The Hungarian Parliament bans camerawoman who kicked migrants.

New Scholarship

1. Tanel Kerikmäe, Kristi Joamets, Jānis Pleps, Anita Rodiņa, Tomas Berkmanas, Edita Gruodytė (eds.), The Law of the Baltic States (2017) (addressing structures, problems, and perspectives in the legal systems of the Baltic States).
2. Cornelis Hendrik van Rhee and Yulin Fu (eds.), Supreme Courts in Transition in China and the West, Adjudication at the Service of Public Goals (2017) (offering a comparison between Chinese Supreme People’s Court and Western supreme courts).
3. Stefan Vogenauer and Stephan Weatherill (eds.), General principles of law: European and comparative perspectives (2017) (exploring general principles of EU law and their responsiveness to national laws).
4. Dennis Davis, Alan Richter and Cheryl Saunders (eds.), An inquiry into the existence of global values (2017) (analyzing normative agreement between countries with very different political, economic, cultural and legal traditions through the prism of national constitutional norms).
5. Nicola Lupo and Giovanni Piccirilli (eds.), The Italian Parliament in the European Union (2017) (exploring the role of the Italian Parliament in the Euro-national parliamentary system as an example of an increased role for national parliaments within the composite European constitutional order).
6. Isabelle Ioannides, Cyprus and EU enlargement to the Western Balkans: a balancing act, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies (2017) (offering a comprehensive analysis of Cyprus’ commitment to the European perspective of the Western Balkans).
7. George Joffé, Party dualities: Where does political Islam go now?, Mediterranean Politics (2017) (exploring political dualities behind the emergence of moderate Sunni Islamist political parties onto the formal political scene in the Arab world after the Arab Awakening).

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The International Review of Contemporary Legal Issues is currently accepting submissions for its third issue. Submissions instructions and deadlines are available here.
2. The Icesi University welcomes abstracts for the Forum “Justice Crisis and Legal Education in Colombia” on 12 April 2018 in Cali.
3. The KU Leuven Faculty of Law organizes the second “Conference on Empirical Legal Studies in Europe (CELSE)” on 31 May 2018 in Leuven. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 15 February 2018.
4. The Jindal Global Law School, Melbourne Law School, NUS Faculty of Law, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, and University of Oxford organize a workshop on “Comparative Perspectives on Administrative Law in India” on 6-7 April 2018 in Delhi.
5. The International Association for Political Science Students organizes the world congress “Diversity and globalization” on 24-28 April in Paris.
6. The Institute for Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London invites submissions  for the WG Hart Legal Workshop 2018 “Building a 21st Century Bill of Rights” on 11-12 June 2018 in London. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 31 December 2017.
7. The African Network of Constitutional Lawyers in collaboration with the Department of Law at the University of Botswana organizes the biennial conference “Courts, Power and Constitutional Law in Africa” on 11-14 October 2018 in Gaborone. The deadline for the submission of abstracts has been extended to 30 November 2017.
8. The AAB College organizes the international scientific conference on the tenth anniversary of Kosovo statehood “Consolidation of the state and Euro-Atlantic challenges” on 15-16 February 2018 in Prishtina.

Elsewhere Online

1. David R. Cameron, As German coalition talks break down, European anxiety increases, Yale Macmillan Center.
2. Melissa Eddy, Far right upsets tradition of consensus in new German parliament, New York Times.
3. Maria Haimerl, A Constituent Assembly Only in Name? Part III on Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly, Verfassungsblog.
4. Basildon Peta, Why a rush to elections would only hurt Zimbabwe, The Guardian.
5. Robert Hazell and Dawn Oliver, The constitutional standards of the Constitution Committee: How a Code of Constitutional Standards can help strengthen parliamentary scrutiny, UK Constitutional Law Association.
6. Sègnonna Horace Adjolohoun, The African Court: Need for a system-based approach to jurisprudential affirmation, AfricLaw.
7. Maria Lee and Amalie Frese, Protecting Israeli Citizens against Discrimination in Germany, Verfassungsblog.
8. Jason Beattie, Brexit talks hit Irish stumbling block: Mirror Politics morning briefing, Daily Mirror.
9. Dairy Maheshwarit, A more autonomous Sri Lanka is in India’s interest, The Conversation.
10. Tsisana Khundadze, Was the population informed about the constitutional reform in Georgia?, Caucasus Research Resource Centres.