What’s New in Public Law

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–Wilson Seraine da Silva Neto, Master Student at the University of Coimbra – Portugal; Postgraduate Student in Constitutional Law at Brazilian Academy of Constitutional Law

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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. The Court of Appeal of Kenya, in a landmark judgment, held that basic structure doctrine is applicable in Kenya and upheld a lower court decision finding a constitutional amendment unconstitutional. A ruling that could shake up the political landscape less than a year before elections.
2. The Supreme Court of India held that merely because the law allows arrest does not mean the State can use the power indiscriminately to crush personal liberty.
3. The Supreme Court India ruled that women can sit for the NDA (National Defence Academy) admission exam in a landmark interim order, allowing more women to serve in India’s armed forces.
4. The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka suggested changes to a tax amnesty but largely dismissed petitioners’ claims that the bill was inconsistent with the country’s Constitution.
5. The Constitutional Court of Turkey issued two decisions regarding the sanctions and measures taken against two applicants’ freedom of speech. The Court held in both cases that the restrictions of rights and freedoms must have a legal basis, rely on legitimate causes and comply with the needs of a democratic society and the principle of proportionality according to Article 13 of the Constitution of Turkey.
6. The Constitutional Court of Uganda scrapped a controversial anti-pornography law that, among other things, prohibited wearing miniskirts in public in a decision hailed by women’s rights campaigners.
7. The Federal Police preventively arrested former deputy and a party president Roberto Jefferson (PTB-RJ), after the determination of a Justice of the Supreme Court of Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, for aiding digital militia in an attack on democratic institutions.

In the News

1. The Supreme Court of Texas declined to back the governor’s ban of school mask mandates.
2. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ratified amendments to some provisions of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt. As a result, the court will monitor the constitutionality of the decisions of international associations and organizations and foreign court rulings required to be put into effect.
3. The Constitutional Court of Spain plans to address the deliberation of the sentence on the abortion law, pending for 11 years.
4. For the first time, three women judges were recommended together for an elevation to the Supreme Court of India, one of whom could go on to become the first female Chief Justice.
5. The President of Angola appointed Laurinda Jacinto Prazeres Monteiro Cardoso a Chief Judge of the Constitutional Court.
6. Irēna Kucina has been picked by the Cabinet of Ministers for the post of judge of the Constitutional Court of Latvia.
7. After threatening justices of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil Alexandre de Moraes and Luís Roberto Barroso with impeachment, President Jair Bolsonaro defended his action in a dialogue with the justices. Both justices have been recently criticized by the chief executive, which has resulted in an institutional crisis.
8. A New Zealand Supreme Court Justice and President of the International Association of Women Judges has called on the Government to help secure safe passage for female members of the Afghan judiciary and their families.

New Scholarship

1. Supremo Tribunal Federal. Suprema: Revista de Estudos Constitucionais (2021)  (journal dedicated to the analysis of functioning and decision-making of the Supreme Court of Brazil)
2. Theophilus Edwin Coleman. Reflecting on the Role and Impact of the Constitutional Value of uBuntu on the Concept of Contractual Freedom and Autonomy in South Africa (2021) (examining the role and influence of the constitutional value of ubuntu on the principle of contractual freedom and autonomy in South Africa)
3. Alex Zhang, Ostracism and Democracy (2021) NYU Law Review Online (examining recent efforts to remove former President Trump from the public eye with reference to an ancient Greek electoral mechanism ostracism)
4. Steven Gow Calabresi, The History and Growth of Judicial Review: Volume 1 The G-20 Common Law Countries and Israel (2021) (examining the origins and growth of judicial review in the key G-20 constitutional democracies)

Calls for Papers and Announcements:

1. IFIM Law School, India, in collaboration with the Centre for Peace Studies, Bangladesh, organize an online conference on “Challenges and Trends on Migration,” to be held on November 19-20, 20221. The deadline for submitting abstracts is August 31.
2. The 3rd International Summer School “Current Legal Issues in Post-Conflict and Transitional Societies,” co-organized by Bahcesehir Cyprus University, University of Sarajevo, and Association Pravnik Sarajevo, will be held online on September 1-3, 2021. This year’s theme is “Global South Epistemologies and Post-Conflict Societies.”
3. Ruhr Universität Bochum and Swansea University organize an online workshop on “Constitutionalism in Troubled Times,” to be held on September 15, 2021.
4. The Organizing Committee of the 6th Coimbra International Conference on Human Rights opens the registration for listeners until October 10. The Conference will be held on October 12-14, 2021.
5. Comparative law scholars are invited to submit a paper to the next annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop, which be held online on February 3-5, 2022, hosted by the University of Illinois College of Law, and co-hosted by the Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Interested authors should submit papers to Jacqueline Ross at jeross1@uillinois.edu no later than December 1, 2021.

Elsewhere Online

1. José Manuel Aroso Linhares, Aula aberta com o Prof. Dr. José Manuel Aroso Linhares: Diálogos com Habermas e Waldron, YouTube channel of the PPGD-UFPel
2. Martha Minow, How the government can support a free press and cut disinformation, The Harvard Gazette
3. Jeffrey Rosen, Should Chevron Be Overturned?, Podcast We The People
4. Rodrigo Becker and Afonso Freire, Grupo de Pesquisa – Suprema Corte dos EUA, YouTube
5. André Coelho, Curso de Teoria do Direito, YouTube
6. David Sobreira, Crise e putrefação constitucional: Uma conversa com Jack Balkin sobre os fenômenos que têm levado à decadência das democracias, JOTA
7. Bruno Santos Cunha, STF vs. Supreme Court, Migalhas
8. David Cameron, Hoping for a Liberal majority, Trudeau calls early election, Yale MacMillan Center