What’s New in Public Law

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— Ashwani Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor of Law, Vinayaka Mission’s Law School, India

— Olumide Opeyemi Toyinbo, Postgraduate Student, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria

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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 Supreme Court of India ruled that the requirement to provide grounds of arrest is mandatory and not a moere formality. The communication of grounds of arrest is not limited to the arrested person. It also extends to the friends, relatives or such other person as may be disclosed or nominated by the arrested person.
2. The Supreme Court of Ireland dismissed a mother’s appeal against the refusal by the minister for foreign affairs to grant an Irish passport to her child born in Ireland in 2019. It noted that ‘only those whose period of residence is (putatively) permanent can give birthright citizenship to their children born in the  island of Ireland’.
3. The Constitutional Court of Korea held the first official hearing on the impeachment trial of former acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. Han argued that the appointment of Constitutional Court justices is an authority granted solely to the president or acting president under the Constitution and, therefore, does not constitute grounds for impeachment.
4. The New York Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government established three years ago to combat public corruption. In a 4-3 decision, the Court of Appeals ruled in favour of the commission, thereby overturning previous lower court rulings.
5. The Supreme Court of Nigeria, in a dissenting judgment, has declared that the requirement for obtaining the consent of the Attorney-General of the Federation or a State Attorney-General before enforcing judgments against government agencies is inconsistent with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

In the News

1. The National Assembly of Nicaragua has passed a series of constitutional reforms granting sweeping powers to the President and Vice-President of Nicaragua. The President Daniel Ortega and the Vice-President Rosario Murillo are partners.
2. The Constitutional Reform Commission, Bangladesh has recommended extensive and fundamental changes to the 1972 Constitution. The Commission has proposed to replace ‘nationalism, socialism, and secularism’ with ‘equality, human dignity, social justice and pluralism’.
3. The Salvadorian Legislative Assembly ratified a constituonal reform to remove the requirement for constitutional changes to be approved by two separate legislative assemblies. It creates a possibility of fast-tracking constitiuional amendments without due deliberation.
4. The Anglican Primate has called for a newly drafted constitution in Nigeria to address injustice, political imbalance, and national reconciliation. He argued that the current constitution, inherited from military rule, has failed to ensure the equity and justice necessary for the country’s progress.
5. Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has established a Constitutional Review Committee to address gaps in implementing the 1992 Constitution and to build on the work of a previous Constitutional Review Committee in 2021. This committee was formed to strengthen democratic governance in the country.
6. A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking a directive for the government to consider a representation proposing an amendment to the Constitution to replace the word “India” with “Bharat” or “Hindustan.” The matter was brought before Justice Sachin Datta on February 4, and the court has scheduled it for further hearing on March 12.

New Scholarship

1. Richard Albert, How Constitutions Die (Theorises three models of constitutional life and death — the sundial, the grenade, and the hourglass)
2. Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov, Tamar Hostovsky Brandes, Eliav Lieblich, Yaniv Roznai and Adam Shinar, Scholactivism in the service of counter-populism: The case of constitutional overhaul in Israel (The research examines constitutional overhaul in Israel and the activities undertaken by legal scholars to resist the overhaul. Authors also respond to the critique that scholactivism compromises and contradicts the scholarly goals of disseminating knowledge and seeking the truth).
3. Bojan Bugaric, Trump and American Democracy: Why the Constitution Alone Won’t Save American Democracy (A Review of Richard Abel’s three volumes — How Autocrats Seek Power, How Autocrats Abuse Power, and How Autocrats Attack Expertise)
4. Ming-Sung Kuo, Four Matters of Interpretation: The Constitutional Phenomenon in Comparative Studies (Identifies four varities of constitutional comparison and critically investigates the state of comparative constitutional studies)
5. Bruno Santos Cunha, Wim Voermans – The Story of Constitutions: Discovering the We in Us- Book Review (Through a review of Wim Voermans’ Book, Bruno Santo Cunha highlights the universal need for constitutional governance.)
6. Lorianne Updike Toler, Consitution-writing Rules (The research provides a case study in how the US Constitutional Convention deployed rules and benefited from physical strictures and structures that helped produce a high level of consensus).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The HARVEST Project, through its special issue proposal—Rethinking Democracy via the Practice of Constitutional Adjudication, is inviting paper proposals to advance a variety of approaches for conceptual, comparative, empirical and critical study of the relationship between conceptions of democracy and the practices of constitutional courts. Deadline: February 28, 2025. Submission details are here.
2. Call for Papers for 3rd Panel of the conference, entitled ‘Solidarity: the role of civil society in the promotion of peace within and among the states’. Deadline: April 27, 2025. Submission details are here.
3. Catolica Law Review welcomes contributions for its Public Law Issue in the fields of Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, EU Law, International Law, and Tax Law. Deadline: July 31, 2025. Submission details are here.
4. World Comparative Law is calling for abstracts for the upcoming special issue ‘The City as a Contested Space: Constitutional Law Perspectives on Urban Housing Disputes’. Deadline: March 15, 2025. Submission details are here.
5. The European Group of Public Administration has launched its Call for Papers for the 2025 conference ‘EGPA at 50: Prospects for Public Administration across Europe’. Deadline: March 28, 2025. Submission details are here.
6. A Call for Papers for Junior Scholars to participate in the IACL Roundtable ‘Peace and Constitution’ to be held at the University of Aegean, Lesbos, Greece on 4-5 July is now open. Deadline: April 27, 2025. Submission details are here.
7. A special issue of Public Opinion Quarterly invites submissions that highlight the importance of cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-contextual approaches to public opinion research. Deadline: May 18, 2025. Submission details are here.

Elsewhere Online 

1. Rupavardhini Balakrishnan Raju, A Country Young and Old: Nationalism and the Battle Over Constitutional Identity in India (IACL-AIDC Blog, 12 February 2025)
2. Abhinav Ravi, Beyond Constitutional Design: Institutional Independence And The Fourth Branch (NLSIR Online, 12 February 2025)
3. Himani Bhakuni, The Legitimacy of Exclusively Using Soft Law: The Case of Unhealthy Diets (UL Constitutional Law Association Blog, 10 February 2025)
4. Meghan Campbell & Ben Warwick, Temporality Matters for Women’s Equality (African Law, 14 February 2025)
5. Ian Millhiser, What does it mean to be in a “Constitutional Crisis”? (Vox, 13 February 2025)
6. Raffael Fasel, More Equal Than Others: A Response (IACL-AIDC Blog, 19 Febrauary, 2025)