What’s New in Public Law

—Nausica Palazzo, Ph.D. researcher in Comparative Constitutional Law (University of Trento)

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 Lybia declared that administrative courts lack jurisdiction over Constitutional Drafting Assembly (CDA) matters, thereby paving the way for drafting a new constitution.
2. The ECHR condemned Spain for “inhuman and degrading treatment” of an ETA prisoner.
3. The ECHR confirmed the compatibility with the Convention of a criminal conviction for hate speech of a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
4. The Supreme Court of the United States gave the green light for the Pennsylvania congressional redistricting plan to proceed.
5. The Supreme Court of Brazil rejected a lawsuit aimed at limiting land rights of quilombolas (former slave communities).
6. The Constitutional Court of Romania struck down the law allowing the selection of managers in state-owned companies though political criteria.
7. The Supreme Court of Canada reverses a court order to remove online content published before a publication ban was ordered.
8. The High Court of Kenya holds that Coca Cola should provide nutritional information on its food labels.

In the News

1. Cyril Ramaphosa has been sworn in as South Africa’s new president, following Jacob Zuma’s resignation.
2. Ecuador reinstated presidential term limits.
3. The Pakistan government drafted a constitutional amendment bill authorizing congressional appointment and removal of judges in the superior judiciary.
4. Bermuda has passed legislation reversing the Supreme Court’s decision recognizing same-sex marriage in the country.
5. A second federal court temporarily blocks the rescission of DACA.
6. Four survivors of the church massacre in Liberia brought a civil suit in the US against the alleged perpetrator.
7. Italy’s high administrative court ruled that running a degree course exclusively in English violates the primacy of the Italian language and the freedom to teach.
8. North Carolina violated civil rights law by forcing a magistrate to resign over her objection to perform same-sex marriages.
9. A Germany Regional Court ruled that Facebook’s use of personal data is illegal.
10. The High Court of Zimbabwe lifted the ban on an acclaimed documentary film.

New Scholarship

1. Steven G. Calabresi et al., Individual Rights Under State Constitution in 2018: What Rights are Deeply Rooted in a Modern-Day Consensus of the States, Northwestern Law & Econ Research Paper No. 18-02 (2018) (analyzing in historical perspective the individual rights protected under state constitutions in the United States)
2. Allan R. Brewer-Carías and Carlos García-Soto (Eds.), Estudios sobre la Asamblea Nacional Constituyente y su inconstitucional convocatoria en 2017 (Editorial Jurídica Venezolana, 2017) (gathering essays arguing for the unconstitutionality of the current National Constituent Assembly in Venezuela)
3. Grainne De Burca, Is EU Supranational Governance a Challenge to Liberal Constitutionalism? University of Chicago Law Review (Forthcoming) (inquiring into whether EU’s supranational form of governance fueled the rise of authoritarianism in Europe)
4. Alon Harel & Adam Shinar, The Real Case for Judicial Review, in Erin Delaney & Rosalind Dixon (eds.), Elgar Research Handbook on Comparative Judicial Review (forthcoming 2018) (testing one of the justifications for judicial review, namely it facilitates the hearing of grievances)
5. Rass Holdgaard, Daniella Elkan & Gustav Krohn Schaldemose, From cooperation to collision: The ECJ’s Ajos ruling and the Danish Supreme Court’s refusal to comply, 55 Common Market Law Review (2017) (examining the recent clash between the ECJ and the Danish Supreme Court over the Ajos case, and explaining what led the Danish Supreme Court to refuse to comply with the ECJ judgment)
6. Gillian E. Metzger & Kevin M. Stack, Internal Administrative Law, 115 Michigan Law Review (2017) (offering a conceptual and historical account of the role of internal norms and structures in controlling agency action in the United States)
7. Valérie Verbist, Reverse Discrimination in the European Union: A Recurring Balancing Act (Intersentia, 2017) (examining reverse discrimination from a EU law perspective and under the laws of five member states)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The University of Bologna is inviting applications for the Summer School “Methodology of comparative law. Constitutional, Transnational and Political Justice Models,” which will take place in Bologna, Italy, on July 2-6, 2018.
2. The ICRC Delegation in Washington, and faculty from Cardozo, Stanford and Loyola Law School welcome submissions for the 3rd annual workshop “Revisiting the role of international law in national security,” to be held in New York, on June 18th, 2018.
3. The Stanford Program in Law and Society issued a call for papers for the 5th Conference for Junior Researchers to be held on May 11-12, 2018. The theme for the 2018 conference is ‘Law in Everyday Life.’ Deadline to submit abstracts: February 5, 201
4. The American University – Washington College of Law invites applications for its Program of Advanced Studies on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, to be held in Washington D.C., from May 29 to June 15, 2018.
5. The Information Law Institute at NYU is accepting applications for research fellowships to begin in Fall 2018. Applications received on or before February 20 will be given priority.
6. The Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance of the University of Luxembourg has an opening for a Doctoral candidate in EU public law and/or comparative administrative law. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2018.
7. The University of Aberdeen, in collaboration with the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme, is offering six Early Stage Researcher (PhD) positions, lasting 3 years starting in September 2018, for ground-breaking research on how political concepts are used in the world. Applicants researching on the concept of constitutionalism are especially welcome.
8. The University of Oxford, Faculty of Law and St Peter’s College is offering an Associate Professorship of Public International Law. The closing date for applications is February 22, 2018.
9. The American Society of International Law has launched a call for volunteers (current law student or young professional within three years of graduation) for the ASIL 2018 Annual Meeting, to be held in Washington, DC from April 4-7, 2018.

Elsewhere Online

1. David R. Cameron, German parties negotiate a coalition agreement. But will the SPD members say yes?, Yale MacMillan Center
2. Donal Coffey, Does UK Law Require a Referendum on the EU Withdrawal Agreement?, European Futures
3. Grietje Baars, Symposium on the Third Option: ‘Not Man, Not Woman, Not Nothing’: ‘The Politics of Recognition and Emancipation Through Law’, Blog of the IACL, AIDC
4. Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, Diagnosing pathologies in the 1987 Philippines Constitution, BusinessWorld
5. Bob Morris, The Crown: What does Netflix’s dramatisation and the celebritisation of an evolving monarchy mean for the royal family in 2018?, The Constitution Unit
6. 9 Important Constitutional Amendments That Changed the Course of India, The Better India
7. Alina Cherviatsova, Memory Wars: The Polish-Ukrainian Battle about History, Verfassungsblog
8. Marko Milanovic, A Lot of Activity in the Inter-American Court, EJIL Talk!
9. Julia Lowis, Establishing a breach of Article 3 in medical cases: The ‘applicability’ of Strasbourg jurisprudence (update), OxHRH Blog
10. Bill Perry & Adams Lee, China Targets US Sorghum in Latest Trade Spat, China Law Blog
11. Jonathan H. Adler, Why FDA regulations limiting e-cigarette marketing may cost lives and violate the Constitution, The Volokh Conspiracy
12. Colin PA Jones, A year in the (short) life of Japan’s Cabinet, The Japan Times