What’s New in Public Law

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—Maja Sahadžić, Assistant Professor (University of Antwerp) and Senior Research Fellow (Law Institute in B&H)

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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 Constitutional Court of Bulgaria opened a case on military aid to Ukraine.
2. The Constitutional Court of Benin confirmed that pro-government parties won a majority of seats in parliament.
3. The Constitutional Court of Kuwait delayed hearing the appeals against parliamentary elections until March.
4. The Constitutional Court of Turkey annulled critical articles of laws on state of emergency. It also suspended funding for main pro-Kurdish party.
5. The Supreme Court of blocked appointment of a key Prime Minister’s coalition partner.
6. The Supreme Court of India agreed to simplify passive euthanasia process.

In the News

1. The Supreme Court of the United States probe failed to determine who leaked abortion ruling.
2. European Union and U.S. officials condemned Bosnian Serb leader for awarding Russia’s president with the highest honor of the Republic of Srpska.
3. The Prime Minister of New Zeland resigned ahead of this year’s elections.
4. European Parliament called for investigation into Enlargement Commissioner.
5. Members of the European Parliament urged the European Union to create a special international tribunal to prosecute Russia’s political and military leadership and its allies.
6. Jamaica’s Prime Minister pushed forward to make the nation a republic.
7. The United Kingdom blocked Scotland’s new gender recognition law.
8. The Dutch Parliament passed a constitutional amendment to expand discrimination prohibition to include sexual orientation or disability.

New Scholarship

1. Wojciech Sadurski, Constitutional Public Reason (2023) (questioning the performance of leading ‘exemplars of public reasons’, attempting to show how this performance can be improved, and finding that the best resonance between the ideal of public reason and constitutional interpretation is found in doctrines that locate the illegitimacy of laws in the wrongful motives pursued by legislators.)
2. Jacob Weinrib, The Essence of Rights and the Limits of Proportionality (2023) (defending the bifurcated model of the strength of constitutional rights by expounding the doctrines on which it relies).
3. Barbora Chrzová, Bosnian-Herzegovinian Citizens in the Making – The Citizenship Debate in the Time of Social Mobilizations 1-19 Nationalities Papers (analyzing how the contested notion of Bosnian-Herzegovinian citizenship has been crafted on the discursive level during a series of social mobilizations).
4. Francisco Javier Romero Caro, Equalization and territorial integration in Canada: a nation building instrument? 14(2) Perspectives on Federalism (evaluating if and to what extent the Canadian equalization program can be conceived as an instrument of nation building that contributes to reducing territorial tensions and accommodating diversity, in the end reversing disintegrative trends).
5. Oreste Pollicino, Judicial Protection of Fundamental Rights on the Internet (2022) (exploring how the Internet impacts on the protection of fundamental rights, particularly with regard to freedom of speech and privacy).
6. Francesco Biagi, Justin O. Frosini and Jason Mazzone (eds.), Comparative Constitutional History. Volume Two: Uses of History in Constitutional Adjudication (2023) (discussing how history is used by courts in constitutional adjudication).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Editorial Board of Lentera Hukum invites submissions for its upcoming volumes. The deadline for submissions is 20 May 2023.
2. Ljubljana Law Review invites submissions for its upcoming volume. The deadline for submissions is 17 March 2023.
3. Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law organizes the event “The Form of Legislation and the Rule of Law” to be held in London on 24 January 2023. Registration is required.
4. DIPEC and Research Group on European and Comparative Public Law at the University of Siena invite submissions for the round table “The Principle of Equality: New and Old Challenges” to be held in Siena on 15-16 June 2023. The deadline for submissions is 15 March 2023.
5. The Globalization and Law Network and the Maastricht Centre for European Law organize the 6th annual Young European Law Scholars Conference to be held on 1-2 June 2023 in Maastricht. Deadline for applications is 31 January 2023.
6. The Research Network for Law and Cognitive Sciences organizes the conference “Law, Change, and Time in the Age of Cognitive Sciences” to be held on 15-16 June 2023 in Maastricht. Deadline for applications is 31 January 2023.

Elsewhere Online

1. Mattia Bottino, Unpuzzling Paraguay: politics, drug trafficking, indigenist and land struggles, Eureka!
2. Francesco Palermo, Beyond typologies: federal scholars and federal studies, Eureka!
3. Nicole Pallotta, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court Rules Wild Animals Are Subjects of Legal Rights Under the Rights of Nature, aldf.org
4. Mihir Sharma, India’s Judges Could Suffer the Same Fate as Israel’s, The Washington Post
5. Aeyal Gross, The Populist Constitutional Revolution in Israel, Verfassungsblog
6. Laurent Pech, 7 Years Later: Poland as a Legal Black Hole, Verfassungsblog
7. Emilio De Capitani, Qatargate: The tip of the iceberg?, Verfassungsblog
8. Nozizwe Dube, Not just another Islamic headscarf case: LF v SCRL and the CJEU’s missed opportunity to inch closer to acknowledging intersectionality, European Law Blog
9. Graham Murphy, Overheard on a train: how I could have ransomed a law firm (but didn’t), The Law Society