What’s New in Public Law

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—Wilson Seraine da Silva Neto, PhD Candidate in Economic Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra

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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. U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a lawsuit by the National Rifle Association, alleging that the head of New York’s Department of Financial Services violated the group’s First Amendment rights when she urged banks and insurance companies not to do business with it in the wake of the 2018 shooting at a Florida high school. The case will return to the court of appeals.
2. Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has found that a resolution calling on TK judges “to resign and thus to join the process of democratic change” passed by the government’s majority in parliament is unconstitutional.
3. The Constitutional Court in Moldovva gave the green light to organize a constitutional referendum on accession to the European Union.
4. The Supreme Court of India has reconstituted its Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee due to the Gender Sensitization and Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India Regulation.
5. The Supreme Court of Kenya has said its decisions cannot be subjected to review before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ).

In the News

1. Donald J. Trump, the former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a case stemming from a payment that silenced a porn star.
2. U.S Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito rebuffed requests from Democratic lawmakers to recuse himself from cases involving immunity for former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attacks and the scope of a federal criminal law under which Trump and other Jan. 6 defendants have been charged.
3. The Texas Supreme Court has unanimously rejected a challenge from 20 women who said they were denied medically necessary abortions under the state’s near-total abortion ban. The plaintiffs had sued Texas for clarity on the ban’s sole exception – medical emergencies – arguing it was too vague, leaving patients in danger and doctors in fear of punishment. But the nine justices on the state’s top court disagree.
4. The State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives on Thursday endorsed a bill to amend the Constitutional Council (Functions, Duties, Powers and Procedures) Act unanimously after the CPN-UML backtracked on its earlier position.
5. Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has narrowly avoided suspension, with the Constitutional Court ruling that he can remain in office while it deliberates over a petition seeking his removal for ethics violations.
6. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress is set to fall short of a majority for the first time in 30 years after national elections , marking the biggest political shift in the country since the end of apartheid.

New Scholarship

1. Mafalda Miranda Barbosa, A Dignidade da Pessoa – A Fundamentação do Jurídico, a (re)Compreensão do Direito à Luz do Dever e o Bloqueio da Simples Aspiração (2024) (The book dialogues with different perspectives of understanding human dignity and concludes that it can only be understood when linked to the meaning of the person, as an ethical-axiological category with specific roots).
2. Randy E. Barnett, A Life for Liberty: the making of an American originalist (2024) (Barnett writes candidly about his career strategies, and how he has played an integral role in the rise of originalism).
3. Erica Rayment, What Women Represent: the impact of women in Parliament (2024) (The book is the first large-scale analysis of the substantive representation of women in Canadian politics, adding depth and nuance to our understanding of issues of gender in parliamentary institutions).
4. Bianca Gutan, Are Rights of Judges Becoming Rule of Law Standards in Europe? (2024) (The article posits that judicial independence jurisprudence can become one of the criteria to assess a state’s compliance with the rule of law requirements, although the results still depend too much on the political will of the states)
5. Vlad Perju, Elements of a doctrine of transnational constitutional norms (2024) (This article uses the traditions of constitutionalism to develop the building blocks of a doctrine of transitional constitutional norms)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Constitutional Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism, welcomes submissions for its 3rd Graduate Conference on Constitutional Change. This Conference will be held fully in-person at the University of Texas at Austin from 9 December 2024 to 11 December 2024. Registration is open until 2 September 2024.
2. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research in association with the project “Vulnerability, social rights, and good e-administration”, invites you to the event “The Welfare State in Perspective” which will take place at Colégio da Trindade, Coimbra and online on 11 June 2024.
3. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research invites you to the II Doctoral Students Network which will be held on 26 June 2024, at Colégio da Trindade. The event is organized by PhD students for PhD students. It is an activity for scientific sharing among peers.
4. The Editors of the Oxford Series in Comparative Constitutionalism invites you to an online discussion and Q&A on 6 June 2024. Subjects for discussion will include: (1) preparing and submitting a book proposal; (2) navigating the review process; and (3) selecting a topic.
5. The Electoral Law Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association invites you to participate in the 3rd Electoral Law Day, which will debate the American electoral model. The event will take place at Regional Electoral Court of the Federal District, Brasília on 4 June 2024.

Elsewhere Online

1. John T. Broderick, Jr, Not so Supreme, Concord Monitor
2. Kimberly Wehle, The Supreme Court Could Make the President a King, Politic
3. Cristina Rivera Garza, Mexico’s Women Are Speaking. Will a Female President Listen?, The New York Times
4. Janos Richter, Etienne Hanelt, Hannah Katinka Beck, Many Right(-wing) Choices, VerfassungsBlog
5. Anja Koch, Georgians see threat in controversial ‘Russian law’, DW