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What’s New: Week of May 25

— Dhruv Singhal, Managing Editor, Comparative Constitutional Law and Administrative Law Journal, National Law University, Jodhpur.

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 iconnecteditors@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

  1. Belgium’s Constitutional Court has struck down a key provision in the government’s stricter asylum reforms, ruling that abolishing financial assistance as a form of reception for asylum seekers violates EU law and fundamental rights. The court is still considering a separate measure allowing authorities to deny reception to asylum seekers already granted protection in another EU country.
  2. The Supreme Court of the Philippines has declined to block the arrest of Senator Ronald dela Rosa, clearing the way for authorities to act on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes against humanity linked to the country’s “war on drugs” under former President Rodrigo Duterte. Officials under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. have confirmed the warrant is considered valid domestically, even as dela Rosa, once the national police chief during the campaign, has denied involvement and argued that a foreign court has no jurisdiction to order his arrest.
  3. The Supreme Court of India declined to introduce new legal measures on hate speech, ruling that constitutional courts cannot create criminal offences without legislative approval. The Court said existing laws are sufficient to address speech that incites religious hatred or threatens public tranquillity, rejecting petitions seeking stronger hate speech regulations and automatic police action.
  4. The Supreme Court of India granted bail to an person who spent nearly six years in custody awaiting trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The Court reaffirmed that the right to personal liberty and a speedy trial cannot be overridden by stringent statutory bail conditions, even in an anti-terror law, where a trial is unlikely to conclude soon. The Court also clarified that prolonged pre-trial detention can itself justify bail, and that smaller judicial benches cannot depart from earlier larger-bench rulings on the same legal principle.
  5. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down a recently adopted congressional redistricting map, leaving the invalidation in place ahead of the 2026 elections.The dispute arose after Virginia lawmakers attempted to advance a map under a state constitutional amendment process, but the state’s top court found that the procedure used to place the amendment on the ballot did not comply with constitutional requirements.

In the News

  1. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued an advisory opinion stating that the right to strike is protected under the International Labour Organization’s 1948 Freedom of Association treaty, which has been ratified by 158 countries. The court clarified that while the right is recognised under international labour law, its ruling does not define the exact scope or limits of how that right should be exercised, leaving room for national laws to regulate it.
  2. The UN General Assembly adopted a climate accountability resolution by overwhelming consensus, reaffirming that governments have legal obligations to address climate change as a human rights issue under the ICJ’s 2025 advisory opinion. Spearheaded by Vanuatu, the resolution is being seen as a major step toward strengthening global climate justice and holding states accountable for climate-related harms.
  3. Kazakhstan’s Parliament has approved in the first reading a draft constitutional law to establish the Khalyk Kenesi (People’s Council), a new top consultative body under the country’s 2026 Constitution. The council would include annual sessions, a permanent presidium called the Toralka, and specialized committees to advise on key national issues.
  4. Kenya’s Senate has invited public input on the proposed Referendum Bill, 2026, a landmark measure aimed at creating the country’s first comprehensive legal framework for conducting referenda. The bill seeks to unify rules for constitutional amendment votes, county referenda, and national plebiscites while addressing legal gaps highlighted during the court battles over the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
  5. Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and the Bhumjaithai Party have formally submitted a draft constitutional amendment to parliament, kickstarting efforts to rewrite the country’s charter. The proposal seeks to create a 100-member Constitution Drafting Assembly selected by lawmakers from a 400-person candidate pool, following a court ruling barring direct elections for the body.
  6. In India, the Union government has increased the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court from 34 to 38 judges through an Ordinance promulgated by President Droupadi Murmu, citing rising pendency and the need for more Constitution Benches. While the move aims to improve efficiency, questions remain over the use of executive ordinances instead of legislation, despite Parliament set to convene soon, and whether adding judges alone can address the Court’s record backlog of over 92,000 cases.

New Scholarship

  1. Susanna Mancini and Michel Rosenfeld, ‘Politicized Religion and the Reframing of Fundamental Rights‘, (2026) Oxford Comparative Constitutionalism.
  2. Rosalind Dixon and Erin F. Delaney, ‘Judicial heroines? Comparative and conceptual reflections‘, (2026) Elgar Companion to Female Chief Justices in Comparative Perspective.
  3. Special Issue on Subaltern Perspectives and Alternative Epistemologies, (2026) 18(2) NUJS Law Review.
  4. M. P. Ram Mohan, Sriram Prasad, Vijay V. Venkitesh, Sai Muralidhar and Jacob P Alex, ‘The Supreme Court of India’s Use of Inherent Power under Article 142 of the Constitution: An Empirical Study‘, (2025) 37(1) National Law School of India Review.
  5. Anurag Bhaskar, ‘The Social Life of Free Speech: Who Gets to Speak and Express?‘ (2025) 36(2) National Law School of India Review
  6. JH Snider, Periodic State Constitutional Convention Referendums Their Development Since America’s Founding (Routledge, 2026)
  7. Zsolt Szabó, ‘Omnibus legislation: a tool for and against the rule of law in developing and established democracies‘ (2026) Journal of Legislative Studies 1–20

Calls for Papers and Announcements

  1. The Indian Journal of Constitutional Law (IJCL) invites submissions for its Special Issue on Dignity: Promise and Practice, Volume XIV, to be published in 2026. The deadline for submissions is 31 May 2026.
  2. The MNLU Mumbai Law Journal invites submissions for Issue I. The deadline for submissions is 30 May 2026.
  3. The 29th Annual H.M. Seervai Essay Competition in Constitutional Law, organised by National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, invites submissions. The deadline for submissions is 30 May 2026.
  4. Applications are open for the Federal Scholar in Residence Programme 2027, organised by the Eurac Research Institute for Comparative Federalism (Bolzano/Bozen, Italy). The application deadline is 1 July 2026.
  5. The National Autonomous University of Mexico and Comparative Judicial Studies Research Committee of the International Political Science Association invite submissions for the IPSA RC09 Interim Meeting on ‘Court Roles in the Current Authoritarian Moment’. Paper and panel proposals are due 31 May 2026. 
  6. IE Law School’s Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for Law and Automation invites abstracts and panels for Lawtomation 2026, on the theme ‘Redesigning Law in the AI Age: From Legacy to Legitimacy’. Submissions are due by 15 June 2026.

Elsewhere Online

  1. Duncan Hosie, The Seduction of Constitutional Anti-Orthodoxy, Verfassungsblog (May 13, 2026)
  2. Amar Rouabhi, Algeria’s “Technical” Constitutional Reform: Between Closing Procedural Gaps and Recalibrating Institutional Balances, ConstitutionNet (May 7, 2026)
  3. Darshana Mitra, The SIR: A Long Road to Exile?, The India Forum (April 30, 2026)
  4. Rashi Mitra, To Ban or Not to Ban: Children’s Digital Rights versus Social Media Restrictions, The NLS Blog (May 8, 2026)
  5. Saurav Das, Hate Speech Gets a New Safe Zone, Frontline (May 12, 2026)

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