What’s New in Public Law

What’s New in Public Law

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–Kushagr Bakshi, SJD Candidate (University of Michigan) and Sarthak Gupta, Judicial Law Clerk-cum-Research Associate (Supreme Court of India)

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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 Indian Supreme Court ruled that while legislative proceedings are immune from review for procedural irregularities, legislative decisions can be judicially reviewed, as it set aside RJD MLC Sunil Kumar Singh’s expulsion from the Bihar Legislative Council.
2. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge from abortion opponents who argued that laws restricting anti-abortion demonstrations near clinics violate their First Amendment rights. The case targeted buffer zones designed to protect access to abortion clinics and prevent patient harassment.
3. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected the claims of the Jewish survivors of the Hungarian Holocaust and their heirs seeking damages for property allegedly seized during World War II.
4. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Slovakia discriminated against a Roma pupil by placing him in special education classes for intellectually disabled children based on culturally biased tests.
5. The Constitutional Court of South Korea unanimously ruled that Acting President Choi Sang-mok’s decision to withhold the appointment of a ninth justice last year is an “unconstitutional act,” infringing upon the right of the National Assembly.
6. The Constitutional Court of Bulgaria ordered a full recount of the country’s October 2024 parliamentary election results, following an audit that discovered various voting discrepancies.
7. The European Court of Justice delivered its judgement in the proceedings between Google and its subsidiaries and the Competition and Market Authority of Italy, concerning the access restriction abuses on app stores. It ruled that Google’s refusal to allow a digital platform developed by Enel access to its Android Auto platform was an abuse of dominance, even if the platform is not indispensable to the commercial operation of Enel’s app.
8. The Indian Supreme Court ruled that anticipatory bail is maintainable for Good and Service Tax Act offences, overturning previous judgments that limited the relief to Writ Petitions, thereby upholding the right to life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.

In the News

1. The Taliban declared Afghanistan’s 2003 accession to the ICC legally void after the court’s prosecutor sought arrest warrants for its top leaders. This move follows ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for warrants against Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
2. The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolutions ‘advancing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine’ which calls for de-escalation, early cessation of hostilities and peaceful resolution of the war against Ukraine.
3. The Parliament of Ukraine unanimously passed a resolution affirming President Zelenskyy’s legitimacy and the constitutional deferral of elections amid wartime, with 268 votes in favour and 12 MPs absent.
4. The UK Government introduced the Crime and Policing Bill, as part of the government’s Safer Streets mission, which targets high-harm crimes like knife crime and cybercrime while granting police new warrantless powers to enter properties geo-located for stolen mobile phones.
5. Thailand deported 40 Uyghur asylum seekers back to China, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who had long warned that the men would possibly face torture and long-term imprisonment upon their return.
6. Talks between Ukraine and the U.S. were cut short after Trump accused President Zelenskyy of being disrespectful and screamed at him in the Oval Office.
7. Pope Francis has experienced fresh breathing difficulties as he enters a third week of treatment in a Rome hospital, according to the Vatican press office in a statement issued Friday evening.

New Scholarship

1. Ellen Rock, Causation in Public Law, 56 Australian Journal of Administrative Law 30 (2023). (This paper examines causation-oriented reasoning in public law questions, specifically jurisdiction, a ground of review and relief and explains how it differs from causation in private law questions.)
2. Anette Stimmer, The Politics of International Norms: A Rhetorical Approach (2025). (This book examines the ambiguities and tensions around international legal norms and the resulting contestation in concrete situations.)
3. Jedidiah J Kroncke & Haimo Li, The Global Scope of Competitive Legalities in the Early 19th-Century South China Sea: The Topaz Incident, European Journal of International Law (forthcoming, 2025) (This paper examines the 1807 capture of an American merchant vessel by a British cutter outside of Macau to explore Anglo-American rivalries that culminated in the war of 1812 as well the centrality of China to this rivalry.)
4. Yvonne Tew, Reading Ely in Tokyo, Global Constitutionalism (forthcoming, 2025). (This article contributes to the growing discourse on comparative political process theory, or comparative representation-reinforcing theory, by examining the judicial role in preserving democracy, as well as the role that courts can play in constructing and facilitating constitutional democracy, particularly in fragile democracies.)
5. Jud Campbell, Determining Rights, 138 Harvard Law Review 921 (2025). (This article examines founding-era views on constitutional rights, arguing that they were grounded in natural or customary law rather than enacted text and determined through politics rather than judicial interpretation. It critiques modern “text and history” approaches for misrepresenting the original Bill of Rights.)
6. Gary Lawson, The Rise and [?] of Anti-Administrativism, Brigham Young University Law Review (Forthcoming, 2025). (This article examines the different strains of anti-administrativism and focuses on the constitutional critique of the administrative state. It highlights gaps in originalist scholarship, particularly on subdelegation, executive control, and judicial power.)
7. Jeffrey Jenkins and Justin Peck, The Collapse of the Civil Rights Coalition: Congress and the Politics of Antibusing Legislation, 1966-86, Law and History Review (forthcoming, 2025). (This article provides a legislative policy history detailing the congressional battle over busing to shed light on the collapse of the pro-civil rights coalition responsible for the landmark achievements of the early 1960s).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Thicker Notions of Human Rights Accountabilities, hosted by the Future Proofing Human Rights research project in Brussels, Belgium from 19-21 November 2025, is inviting contributions that seek to reconstruct the notion of human rights accountability. Deadline: April 20th, 2025. Submission details are here.
2. The European Group of Public Administration is inviting papers for the 2025 conference ‘EGPA at 50: Prospects for Public Administration across Europe’, scheduled for August 27-29, 2025, in Glasgow. Deadline: 28th March 2025. Submission details are here.
3. The 20th ESIL Annual Conference in Berlin invites paper submissions for Interest Group workshops and agora panels on themes such as reconstructing international law across various fields, including human rights, environmental law, migration, and feminist perspectives. Deadline: 20th April 2025. Submission details are here.
4. The 9th Populism Specialist Group Annual Workshop, in collaboration with the Laboratory for the Study of Democracy and the Centre for the Study of Democracy, Significance and Resistance invites papers on themes such as Left-wing strategy after ‘the populist moment’, Institutionalisation of left radicalism and populism and Left populism beyond parties and institutions. The workshop is scheduled for October 2-3, 2025 and the submission deadline is March 14, 2025. Further details can be found here.
5. re: constitution is inviting applications for its 2025 Fellowships (October 2025 – July 2026) supporting early-career scholars and practitioners working on democracy and the rule of law in Europe. The fellowship fosters pan-European mobility, interdisciplinary debate, and collaboration through two tailored tracks. Deadline: 3 April 2025, 12 noon CEST. Application details are here.

Elsewhere Online

1. Kate Murphy, People As Products: A Human Rights Perspective On The Transfer Of US Prisoners To Salvadoran Jails (EJIL: Talk, 20 February 2025)
2. Ian Ayres & Fredrick E. Vars, The Coming Assault on Categorical Gun Prohibitions, (Stanford Law Review Online, 20 February 2025)
3. Kim Lane Scheppele, Trump’s Counter-Constitution, (Verfassungsblog, 21 February 2025).
4. Justin Winchester, Disability Equality in the Workplace: Making the World Differently Through Reasonable Accommodation (African Law, 21 February 2025)
5. Anmol Jain, Grand Narratives of Constitutional Journeys and the Crisis of Democracy: Introduction to the Blog Symposium, (IACL-AIDC Blog, 24 February 2025)
6. Elena Ewering, The Struggles of Rights of Nature Introduction to the Symposium, (Völkerrechtsblog, 24 Feb 2025)
7. Michael Meyer-Resende, A Power Grab Is Not a Constitutional Theory, (Verfassungsblog, 24 February 2025)
8. Thomas B. Griffith, On the Perpetuation of Our Constitution and Civic Charity, (The Yale Law Journal Forum, 25 Feb 2025)
9. Ep. On Delimitation and Federalism [In conversation with Prof. Aditi and Anshul Dalmia], (NLSIU Law School Policy Review, 25 February 2025)
10. John Ehrett, Defending Our Pro-Worker Constitution: Senator Hawley’s Labor Framework Fits Squarely Within the American Constitutional Tradition, (The Federalist Society, 27 February 2025)