What’s New in Public Law

—Simon Drugda, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford (UK)

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. A judge on Albania’s Constitutional Court has been released from duty after not being able to justify his income to a vetting commission.
2. A panel of five judges will hear a consolidated case challenging the process and subsequent constitutional amendment of the age limit for a presidential candidate in Uganda.
3. The Constitutional Court of Chile struck down a law that would have banned universities operating for profit, dealing a blow to free tuition reforms by former president Michelle Bachelet.
4. American Samoa residents living in Utah filed a lawsuit in a second attempt to gain citizenship status for residents of the U.S. territory.
5. An administrative court approved Vienna Airport’s plan to build a third runway, more than ten years after the project was first submitted for review. The Constitutional Court of Austria annulled the first ruling of the lower court, which blocked the expansion project for environmental reasons.

In the News

1. South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed constitutional amendments to reduce presidential power. This marks the first time since 1980 that the president has proposed a constitutional change.
2. Maldives President Abdulla Yameen lifted a 45-day-long state of emergency which had outlawed protests during a surge in political turmoil.
3. A Kenyan high court judge found the Minister of Interior and the inspector general of police guilty of contempt of court and ordered that they appear for sentencing.
4. Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for the repeal of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, which gives Americans the right to keep and bear firearms.
5. A Kenyan appeals court ruled that it is unconstitutional to conduct invasive bodily exams to determine whether persons have engaged in “homosexual conduct.”
6. A Brazilian appeals court unanimously upheld the corruption conviction of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

New Scholarship

1. Stephen Gardbaum, Due Process of Lawmaking Revisited (forthcoming 2018) University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law (arguing that statutes enacted by means of illegitimate procedures, including the paying or withholding of donations for votes as with the recent Republican tax law in the U.S., violate the constitutional requirement of due process in lawmaking and should be invalidated by the courts)
2. Giacomo Delledonne, House of Cards: Comparing the British and the American TV Series from a Constitutional Perspective, 12 Journal of Law, Literature and Culture (2018) (comparing the British and American House of Cards TV series from a constitutional viewpoint)
3. Jeremy Horder, Criminal Misconduct in Office: Law and Politics (2018) (analyzing the application of the offense of misconduct in public office to personal corruption in politics in England and Wales)
4. James R. Maxeiner, Failures of American Methods of Lawmaking in Historical and Comparative Perspectives (2018) (arguing that rule-making in civil law jurisdictions makes for a more equitable legal system than the American way of lawmaking)
5. Giuseppe Franco Ferrari, Reijer Passchier, and Wim Voermans (eds), The Dutch Constitution Beyond 200: Tradition and Innovation in a Multilevel Legal Order (2018) (providing a comparative thematic introduction to the Constitution of the Netherlands)
6. Jud Mathews, Extending Rights’ Reach: Constitutions, Private Law, and Judicial Power (2018) (discussing how courts make choices about whether, when, and how to give rights horizontal effect in three case studies, of Germany, the United States, and Canada)
7. John Dinan, State Constitutional Politics: Governing by Amendment in the American States (2018) (looking at the various occasions in American history when state constitutional amendments have served as instruments of governance)

Special Announcement

The Arab Association of Constitutional Law (AACL) is pleased to announce the publication of its first annual Yearbook. The first publication of its kind, the Yearbook includes 22 chapters, contributions from 21 authors, who stem from 10 different countries. The first edition of the Yearbook is the outcome of several years of effort by the Arab Association of Constitutional Law’s membership.

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Faculty of Law at Masaryk University and the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences invite submissions for a conference on “Qualitative Research in Law,” to be held on October 26, 2018. The deadline for submission of abstracts is June 30.
2. The LUISS School of Government in cooperation with LUISS Centre for Parliamentary Studies, CEUR Foundation, International Political Science Association (IPSA), SciencesPo – Centre d’études européennes, and ULB, Université Libre de Bruxelles invite applications for the 7th edition of the Summer Program-Jean Monnet Module on “Parliamentary democracy in Europe”, this year devoted to “Parliamentary Accountability and New Technologies: Transparency, Privacy and Security Challenges“, and taking place at LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome, on July9-20, 2018. The deadline for applications is April 29.
3. The Chair for Public Law and Comparative Law at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung for Freedom invite submissions for a workshop on “The Future of Law: Technology, Innovation and Access to Justice,” to be held on November 29-30, 2018. The deadline for submission of abstracts is April 22.
4. The WZB Berlin Social Science Center, the European University Institute and the London School for Economics and Political Science invite submissions for the second European Junior Faculty Forum for Public Law and Jurisprudence to be held at the European University Institute on July 12-13, 2018. The deadline for submissions is May 1.
5. The Asser Institute invites applications for a postdoctoral position in human rights to assist with the Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspectives (MELA) project and to strengthen the research capacity of the Asser Institute in anti-discrimination law in a dedicated research strand on “Human dignity and security in international and European law.” The deadline for submission of applications is 15 May 2018.
6. Science Po Law School invites submissions for its 7th graduate conference on “Law and Disruption,” to be held on June 20, 2018. The deadline for submission of abstracts is April 15.

Elsewhere Online

1. Max Steuer, The Slovak Constitutional Court on Amnesties and Appointments of Constitutional Judges: Supporting Unrestrained Majoritarianism?, Diritti Comparati
2. David R. Cameron, Brexit negotiation takes decisive step forward but toughest issues lie ahead, Yale Macmillan Centre
3. Benjamin Novak, The Honorable Péter Szepesházi: Threat of disciplinary proceedings used to pressure judges, The Budapest Beacon
4. Matt Glassman, House Procedure, Agenda Setting, and Impeachment, Yale Journal of Regulation Blog
5. Andrew Hamm, Does the shape of the Supreme Court’s bench affect oral argument?, SCOTUSblog
6. Richard L. Hasen, Supreme Court Avoids Bush v. Gore II in Ducking Pennsylvania Redistricting Controversy, Harvard Law Review Blog
7. Steven D. Schwinn, District Court Rejects Suit Against Trump for Violations of the Presidential Records Act, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
8. Noah Feldman, Second Amendment Repeal Would Hurt Constitution, Bloomberg View
9. Dominic Ruck Keene, The ‘reasonable citizen’ — Sergei Skripal, UK Human Rights Blog
10. Jordi Nieva-Fenoll, High Treason in Germany – Rebellion in Spain, Verfassungsblog
11. Marcelo Figueiredo, Administrative Discretion: a comparative analysis, Blog of the IACL, AIDC
12. Jerome A. Cohen, Xi Jinping Amends China’s Constitution, Jerry’s Blog
13. Stephanie Tai, The Human Rights Implications of Xi Jinping’s Limitless Presidential Term, OxHRH
14. Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, ‘Imperial Manila’ is a constitutional design: Towards configuring executive authority in a federal system, ConstitutionNet
15. Pierre de Vos, Is the state authorised to pay Jacob Zuma’s private lawyers in his corruption case?, Constitutionally Speaking
16. Satang Nabaneh, The unspoken: Unsafe abortion in The Gambia and the necessity for legal reform, AfricLaw
17. Faizan Mustafa, Rethinking the ‘Office of Profit’ disqualification, Law and Other Things
18. Saad Rasool, Do courts have authority to punish people for judicial contempt?, Global Village Space
19. Richard Cullen, Filibustering: Flawed in Principle and Bad for Hong Kong, IPP Review
20. Lael K. Weis, Legislation as a Method of Constitutional Reform: An Alternative to Formal Amendment?, AUSPUBLAW