—Benjamin Nurkić, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law University of Tuzla and a member of the Constitutional Committee of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
—Silvia Talavera Lodos, PhD Candidate, School of Advanced Studies Sant’Anna.
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
- The South African Constitutional Court upheld the rights of Zimbabwean exemption permit holders to fair administrative action.
- The Constitutional Court of Poland has ruled that a bill was passed unconstitutionally due to the exclusion from parliament of two opposition politicians who lost their parliamentary seats after receiving criminal convictions.
- The Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court did not admit a constitutional complaint for decision and dismissed an electoral complaint. The complainants, who were born in August 2009 and July 2010 respectively, challenge the statutory minimum voting age, which precludes them from voting in the European elections.
- The ECtHR has ruled that it is legitimate to ban the wearing of visible religious symbols at school, such as the Islamic veil. Thus, the judges agreed with the education system in Flanders, Belgium, and declared the three Muslim students’ appeal in Strasbourg inadmissible.
- The ECtHR In the case of Z v. the Czech Republic held that there had been a violation of the right to prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment and of the right to respect for private life.
In the News
- The Hungarian Parliament elected Justice Imre Juhász as the President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court.
- Marin Vukoja has been elected as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- The US Supreme Court upheld the Trump-Era Tax provision.
- The EU Council formally adopted the regulation on nature restoration. This law aims to put measures in place to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.
- Argentina’s upper house has narrowly passed a controversial bill key to libertarian President Javier Milei’s economic reform plans as thousands of protesters clashed with police in the streets.
New Scholarship
- Jesse Hartery and Geoffrey T. Sigalet. The Frontiers of Nullification and Anticommandeering: Federalism and Extrajudicial Constitutional Interpretation (2024) (nullification and anticommandeering, examples of how non-judicial actors can engage in constitutional reasoning, have functionally reemerged in Canada).
- Giuseppe Martinico. Identity Politics and the Militarisation of Constitutional Law (2024) (explores the use of constitutional law populists in power to define and combat their perceived enemies, reflecting Carl Schmitt’s theories.).
- Violeta Moreno‐Lax. EU Constitutional Dismantling Through Strategic Informalisation: Soft Readmission Governance as Concerted Disintegration (2024) (the EU’s external migration policy is being undermined through the tactical use of informal agreements (soft law), which bypass key EU legal principles and foundational rules)
- Jie Ouyang. Embedded Consumer: Towards a Constitutional Reframing of the Legal Image of Consumers in EU Law (2024) (the ‘embedded consumer’ approach emphasizes consumers’ social responsibilities and vulnerabilities, advocating for policies that balance individual rights with community interests and address consumer vulnerability).
- Amal Sethi. Towards Reimagining the Autonomous City (2024) (in Richard Albert, Nathalie Des Rosiers, and Alexandra Flynn (eds), The Past, Present, and Future of Canadian Cities, 213-228) (this chapter examines the benefits and complexities of granting cities greater autonomy by analyzing Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai, and proposes enhancing urban representation and financial resources within existing frameworks).
- Adrienne Stone and Lael K. Weis. Constitutional Theory in a Comparative Context (2024) (discusses the opportunities and challenges of developing constitutional theory in a comparative context, beginning with defining constitutional theory and establishing criteria for a good theory, including empirical adequacy.)
Calls for Papers and Announcements
- The Fifth Spanish Edition of the International Journal of Constitutional Law welcomes original articles until April 1, 2025.
- The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) will be holding a conference in Bengaluru from August 1-3, 2024 as part of the Pluralist Agreement and Constitutional Transformation (PACT) Project. Deadline for abstract submission is June 25, 2024.
- The 10th Asian Constitutional Law Forum, hosted by HKU Law and CCPL HKU Law, will be held in December 2024 in Hong Kong, focusing on the theme “Constitutional Change in Asia in the 21st Century,” with the proposal submission deadline set for July 15, 2024.
- The 2025 Global Summit on Constitutionalism will be held in-person on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin from March 20-22, 2025. Submissions are welcome until November 4, 2024.
- The International and Comparative Law Quarterly invites authors to submit articles of 6-8,000 words by August 31, 2024 on “Law of the Sea: Present Challenges and Future Directions”.
- RMLNLU Law Review announces the call for papers for Volume XV, with a submission deadline of September 4, 2024.
Elsewhere Online
- Edoardo D’Alfonso Masarié. A Constitutional Reform in Italy to the Detriment of Systemic Balance, Verfassungsblog
- Imogen Foulkes, Is International Law Dead? Inside Geneva podcast.
- Pratyush Kumar, Colours for Constitutions, Diritti Comparati Blog
- Kalypso Nicolaidis, Representing European citizens: Why a Citizens’ Assembly should complement the European Parliament, Global Citizenship Observatory
- Eesha Shrotriya & Shantanu Pachauri, A Constitutionally Preferable Approach to Conducting Simultaneous Elections, IACL-AIDC Blog
- Silvia Soteu, Feminist Constitutionalism: Part VIII – The Future of Feminist Constitutionalism: Challenges and Opportunities, I-CONnect Blog
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