What’s New in Public Law

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—Azeem Amedi, LLM in Legal and Political Theory, University of York
—Guy Baldwin, PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge

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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 German Constitutional Court found that a law banning child marriages required amendment because it prevented continuation of a marriage once both spouses became adults.
2. The South African Constitutional Court ruled that a sentence of imprisonment for contempt for failing to pay a judgment debt is unconstitutional.
3. The South Korean Constitutional Court held that the Ministry of Justice’s prohibition for COVID-19 patients, self-quarantining or high-risk individuals from taking bar examination was unconstitutional, as it infringed the freedom of occupational choice.
4. The Italian Constitutional Court struck down a provision that did not allow parents, despite their agreement, to give only the mother’s surname to their child.
5. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear a case relating to the judicial appointment of special prosecutors, leaving undisturbed an appeals court decision permitting such an appointment.

In the News

1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed his plan to reform the judiciary in the face of widespread protests and strikes.
2. The Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus introduced legislation to the Commonwealth Parliament for a referendum on a constitutional amendment to enable an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
3. The Pakistani government introduced a bill to limit the powers of the country’s Supreme Court after a suo moto decision on delayed elections in Punjab.
4. New regulations required United States Supreme Court justices and federal justices to provide greater disclosure of any free trips, meals or gifts they receive.
5. A newly-inaugurated Justice of the Indonesian Constitutional Court, Guntur Hamzah, was found guilty of breaching the code of ethics by altering a court’s decision on the review of the Law on the Constitutional Court.
6. Jamaica announced a Constitutional Reform Committee to guide the transition of the country to a republic.
7. Indonesia’s House of Representatives passed the Government Regulation in lieu of Law on Jobs Creation as a law despite being declared as conditionally unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and facing public backlash.
8. The French Constitutional Council is set to issue a decision on 14 April 2023 in relation to the government’s plan to increase the retirement age.
9. Senator Ted Cruz introduced a proposed constitutional amendment to limit the United States Supreme Court to nine justices.

New Scholarship

1. Abdurrachman Satrio, Restoring Indonesia’s (Un)Constitutional Constitution: Soepomo’s Authoritarian Constitution (examining the idea of restoring the Indonesian Constitution to its original 1945 form, architected by Soepomo with his integralist view).
2. Alex Green, Mitchell Travis and Kieran Tranter, Jurisprudence of the Future (reinvigorating approaches to law and justice using ideas from science fiction works).
3. Enver Hasani and Fisnik Korenica, “Two Courts” for One Constitution: Fragmentation of Constitutional Review in the Law of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague (analyzing the competing constitutional jurisdiction between Kosovo Specialist Constitutional Chamber and Constitutional Court)
4. Joe Atkinson, Employment Status and Human Rights: An Emerging Approach (examining the implications of human rights in the context of the personal scope of employment law in English law).
5. Jaakko Husa, Introduction to Comparative Law (2^nd edition) (providing an introduction to the study of comparative law).
6. Monika Stachowiak-Kudła, Sina Westa, Catarina Santos Botelho & Ildikó Bartha, Academic Freedom as a Defensive Right (analysing concepts of academic freedom before constitutional courts of Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Spain).
7. Bell E Yosef, Constitutional Dialogue Under Pressure: Constitutional Remedies in Israel as a Test Case (arguing that the judicial effort to enhance legitimacy through soft remedies is problematic)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The international symposium “Governing Artificial Intelligence: Designing Legal and Regulatory Responses” in Brussels, Belgium, on 23 May 2023 is calling for papers. The deadline is April 7, 2023.
2. The American Society for Legal History invites submissions on any topic in legal, institutional and/or constitutional history for the annual Kathryn T. Preyer Award. The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2023.
3. The International Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Conference “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 75: Rethinking and Constructing Its Future Together” on 6-8 December 2023 at Ghent University, Belgium, is calling for papers. The deadline for submissions is April 16, 2023.
4. The Doctoral Workshop on “The EU’s Response to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine – International and European Perspectives” on 22 June 2023 is calling for abstracts. The deadline is April 23, 2023.
5. The Cambridge International Law Journal invites submissions for Volume 12(2) on “Language in International Law”. The deadline is May 12, 2023.
6. The conference “From Rule of Law Backsliding to a Sustainable Rule of Law” will be held in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, on September 21-22, 2023. Applications are due before May 15, 2023.
7. The Anglo-German Law Journal 2023 is calling for papers on topics of comparative law issues and current developments in English and German law. The submission deadline is on July 31, 2023.

Elsewhere Online

1. Yassar Aulia, The Return of Colonial Laws and State Paternalism in Indonesia’s New Criminal Code (March 8, 2023)
2. Olga Ceran and Ylenia Guerra, The Council’s Conditionality Decision as a Violation of Academic Freedom? (March 23, 2023)
3. Jed Meers, Joe Tomlinson, Alice Welsh, and Charlotte O’Brien, Rights on Paper? The Discriminatory Effects of Digital Immigration Status on Private Landlord Decisions (March 14, 2023)
4. Eleonora Bottini, Constitutional? Perhaps. Democratic? Not So Much (March 27, 2023)
5. Jemma Carpenter, Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Windsor: Who Defines King Charles’ Constitutional Role? (March 27, 2023)
6. Megan Davis, Together We Can Change Nation for the Better (March 24, 2023)
7. Anne Twomey, We Now Know Exactly What Question the Voice Referendum Will Ask Australians (March 23, 2023)
8. Federico Fabbrini, How EU Membership Transformed Ireland’s Socio-Legal Norms: The Case of Abortion (March 29, 2023)