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 Spanish Constitutional Tribunal suspended the law permitting the Catalan parliament to vote in Puigdemont in absentia.
2. The Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the cancellation of pension payments to persons establishing their domicile abroad, who contributed to the pension system, is unconstitutional.
3. The Brazil Supreme Court limited MPs’ jurisdiction privileges due to the high caseload.
4. The Constitutional Court of Croatia upheld a law aimed at shielding the economy from the crisis of Croatia’s largest private company.
5. The Israel Supreme Court President expresses concerns over a recent bill that would limit the independence of the judiciary.

In the News

1. The Polish President set the date for a consultative referendum on prospective constitutional amendments.
2. The Philippine Supreme Court removed one of its judges, and main opponent of Duterte’s reforms, for failure to disclose wealth.
3. The president of Moldova announced amendments to the constitution aimed at transitioning to a presidential government.
4. The new President of Myanmar pledges to amend the nation’s military-drafted constitution.
5. Italy’s anti-establishment parties, 5-Star Movement and League, enter a second round of talks to jointly form a government.
6. The Supreme Court of Equatorial Guinea upheld the dissolution of the opposition party Ciudadanos por la Innovación.

New Scholarship

1. Anne Twomey, The Veiled Sceptre – Reserve Powers of Heads of State in Westminster Systems (Cambridge University Press 2018) (examining exercises of the discretionary or ‘reserve’ powers of heads of state in countries including Australia, Barbados, Canada, Fiji, Grenada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sri Lanka, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom and Vanuatu)
2. Brian Christopher Jones, The rule of law in UK public law textbooks: from critique to acceptance?Public Law (forthcoming) (surveying UK public law textbooks to demonstrate how the rule of law often received curt and highly critical coverage in the 20th century, but now receives expansive and mostly accepting coverage)
3. Aydin Atilgan, Global Constitutionalism: A Socio-Legal Perspective (Springer, 2018) (casting doubt on the use of the “global constitutionalism” paradigm as a viable alternative paradigm for international law)
4. Chad Damro, Sieglinde Gstöhl, Simon Schunz, The European Union’s Evolving External Engagement Towards New Sectoral Diplomacies? (Routledge, 2018) (reporting the expansion of the EU’s external policy portfolio towards new areas such as competition, energy, the environment, justice and home affairs or monetary governance but also gender, science, culture or higher education)
5. Kheinkor Lamarr, Jurisprudence of Minority Rights: The Changing Contours of Minority Rights, Proceedings of the 8th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences (2018) (charting out the historic protection of minority rights under international human rights law).
6. Kerry Abrams, The Rights of Marriage: Obergefell, Din, and the Future of Constitutional Family Law, 103 Cornell Law Review (2018) (examining the main and most recent constitutional family law decisions in the United States, included the overlooked Din decision)
7. Aniceto Masferrer (Ed.), The Western Codification of Criminal Law: A Revision of the Myth of its Predominant French Influence (Springer, 2018) (offering a critical assessment of the influence of the French model on European and Latin American criminal codes)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The European University Institute welcomes applications to the Summer School “Introduction to Teaching in Higher Education,” a 4-day workshop that will introduce participants to the theory and practice of teaching in Higher Education. The summer school is held on July 4-9, 2018, in Florence, Italy. Applications are considered on a first-come, first-serve basis.
2. The AALS Sections on International Human Rights and Law and the Social Sciences invite submissions for their program “Empirical Approaches to Human Rights Law and the Rise of ‘Indicators’” at the AALS Annual Meeting, to be held on January 2-6, 2019, in New Orleans, LA.
3. The International Journal for the Semiotics of Law has launched a call for papers for its special issue “Hungarian Language and Law: Developing a Grammar for Social Inclusion, a Vocabulary for Political Emancipation.” The submission deadline is June 30, 2018.
4. The American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA) and the International Law Students Organization (ILSA) invite submissions to the International Law Weekend 2018 on “Why International Law Matters,” to be held October 18-20, 2018, in New York. More information can be found here.
5. The new issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 29, No. 1) is
6. The Emory University School of Law in Atlanta will host a conference on “Vulnerability and the Social Reproduction of Resilient Societies” on May 29–31, 2018. Here is the link to the registration.
7. The University of Oxford, Faculty of Law has an opening for the Professorship of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law in association with St Peter’s College. The deadline for applications is May 30, 2018.
8. The Faculty of Law, Economics, and Finance (FDEF) of the University of Luxembourg has an opening for one Professor of Capital Markets and Post-Trade. The deadline for the application is June 10, 2018

Elsewhere Online

1. Arianna Vedaschi, State Secrecy in Counterterrorism: Different Judicial Standards of Review – The Abu Omar Case before Italian Courts, Verfassungsblog
2. Sioudina Mandibaye Dominique, Reforming the Content, Rather than Context, of the Chadian Constitution: Old Wine in a New Bottle?, ConstitutionNet
3. Nicholas Bagley, There’s No Justification for Michigan’s Discriminatory Work Requirements, Notice & Comment Blog
4. Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo, Why Are So Many Democracies Breaking Down?, The New York Times
5. Rishabh Bajoria, Indian Supreme Court Waters Down Legislation Protecting Scheduled Castes and Tribes from Unlawful Discrimination, OxHRH Blog
6. Gianfranco Baldini, Andrea Pedrazzani and Luca Pinto, How Italy experienced (yet another) electoral system and why it may soon change it again, The Constitution Unit
7. Jack Sheldon, The UK-Welsh agreement on Brexit and devolved powers, and why it matters for the UK as a whole, Blog of the Centre on Constitutional Change
8. Henna Bagga, Higher Education Is a Human Right, JURIST
9. Sarah Keenan, The Blurring of Australian and Nauruan Jurisdiction, Blog of the IACL, AIDC
10. Sofia Ranchordás, Cities as Corporations? The Privatization of Cities and the Automation of Local Law, Admin Law Blog
11. Marcin Matczak, A Constitutional Referendum to Delegitimize the Constitution, Verfassungsblog