What’s New in Public Law

—Chiara Graziani, Ph.D. Candidate and Research Fellow in Constitutional Law, University of Genoa, Italy

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 contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Supreme Court of India held that the right to privacy is not absolute.
2. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico will hear an appeal regarding the legitimacy of the de facto Governor Pedro R. Pierluisi.
3. The Supreme Court of Kenia dismissed a petition aimed to nullify the Governor’s election.
4. The Supreme Court of Brazil rejected a request for the extradition of an opponent of the Turkish President Erdogan.
5. The Supreme Court of India will hear a case involving allegations of rape against a politician.
6. The High Court of Australia upheld the dismissal of a public servant over tweets criticizing government immigration policy.
7. The U.S. Supreme Court was asked to determine whether or not the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to the Internet and apps.
8. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania and Kenia.
9. The Supreme Court of the Philippines was asked to review a decision dismissing a plea brought by the National Union of People’s Lawyers.
10. The European Court of Justice held that a website featuring a Facebook “Like” button can be a controller, jointly with Facebook, in respect to personal data of the website’s visitors.
11. The Constitutional Court of Turkey held that the government’s failure to enable the election of a new Armenian patriarch pursuant to Turkish-Armenian tradition and religious requirements constituted a violation of religious freedom.

In the News

1. Sudanese rival parties signed a constitutional declaration for the transition to civilian rule.
2. A group of UK MPs started a legal action aimed at preventing Boris Johnson from forcing the Parliament through a no-deal Brexit.
3. Alabama’s system of election for appellate court was challenged before a federal judge.
4. A U.S. appeals court ruled on Google’s class-action settlement on the use of cookies and referred the case back to a lower court.
5. The Republican Party and President Donald Trump sued the government of California over a new law requiring candidates for the U.S. presidency to release their income tax return.
6. New Zealand plans a reform to decriminalize abortion.
7. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said they will open a domestic terrorism investigation into the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting that left three people dead.
8. The Indian President signed a decree revoking Kashmir’s special status.
9. A Turkish court imposed access block on new portals and social media.
10. The Indian Parliament passed a bill to increase the number of Supreme Court judges.

New Scholarship

1. Ronald T.P. Alcala, Eric Talbot Jensen (eds.), The Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Law of Armed Conflict (2019 forthcoming) (addressing the use of cutting-edge technology, such as cyber capabilities, autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence, in conflict operations)
2. Alexander Brown, Adriana Sinclair, The Politics of Hate Speech Law (2019 forthcoming) (assessing how the political framework impacts on the definition of hate speech and the way to deal with it)
3. Graham Butler, An Interim Post-Mortem: Specialised Courts in the EU Judicial Architecture after the Civil Service Tribunal, International Organizations Law Review (2019) (analysing the reform of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the role of the First Advocate General, the review procedure “le réexamen,” and the potential for certiorari in EU law)
4. Stephen Coutts, Citizenship, Crime and Community in the European Union (2019) (addressing the interaction between European Union citizenship and criminal law)
5. Charles Gardner Geyh, Who Is to Judge (2019) (engaging in the debate on judge selection in America)
6. Benjamin J. Goold, Liora Lazarus (eds.), Security and Human Rights (2019) (collecting essays from leading academics and practitioners in several fields of law, shedding light on the challenging relationship between security and rights)
7. Robert Kolb, International Law on the Maintenance of Peace. Jus Contra Bellum (2019) (studying the maintenance of peace in international relations from different perspectives)
8. Stephen Meili, Constitutionalized Human Rights Law in Mexico: Hope for Central American Refugees?, Harvard Human Rights Journal (2019) (analysing the recent amendment to the Mexican Constitution introducing the right to asylum and discussing its practical effect on the protection of refugees)
9. Vincenzo Ruggiero (ed.), Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks (2019) (exploring the close relationship between organized crime and terrorism)
10. Martin Scheinin (ed.), Human Rights Norms in ‘Other’ International Courts (2019) (examining how international courts other than human rights courts deal with human rights norms)
11. Nimer Sultany, What Good is Abstraction? From Liberal Legitimacy to Social Justice, Buffalo Law Review (2019) (arguing that political liberalism’s abstraction creates a gap between liberalism’s institutional commitments to legitimacy and its theoretical aspirations to justice)
12. Elizabeth Stubbins Bates, Distorted Terminology: The UK’s Closure of Investigations into Alleged Torture and Inhumane Treatment in Iraq, International and Comparative Law Quarterly 3 (2019) (examining the closure of investigations into alleged ill-treatment of detainees by British troops in Iraq from the perspective of international humanitarian, human rights, and criminal law)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism invites submissions for its conference on “Constitution-Making and Constitutional Change” to be held at the University of Texas Law School on January 17-18, 2020. The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2019.
2. The Melbourne Institute of Comparative Constitutional Law calls for applications for its Young Scholars Forum, to be held in Melbourne on December 9-11, 2019. The deadline for submissions is August 11, 2019.
3. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law is recruiting a research fellow in environmental and climate change law. Applications close on August 18, 2019.
4. The London School of Economics and Political Science invites submissions of abstracts for the conference “State Accountability under Private, Public, and International Law”, which will be held in London on November 9, 2019. The deadline to send abstracts is August 30, 2019.
5. The University of Oslo calls for applications for Ph.D. fellowships at the Faculty of Law. The deadline to apply is September 1, 2019.
6. The University of Strasbourg invites submissions for fellowships in comparative law. Applications must be sent no later than September 10, 2019.
7. The Younger Comparativists Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law calls for applications for its Scholarship Exchange Program. The deadline is September 15, 2019.
8. The European Society of International Law sponsors the Conference “The Future of Europe as a Place of Refuge”, taking place in Prague, Charles University, on December 5-6, 2019. Submissions must be sent no later than September 15, 2019.
9. The first issue of “NAD. Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie” is now available. The journal welcomes submissions for its 2/2019 issue. The deadline is October 15, 2019.
10. The Younger Comparativists Committee of the American Society of Public Law invites submissions for its workshop on comparative business and financial law, to be held in Akron, Ohio, on February 7-8, 2020. The deadline to submit applications is October 25, 2019.
11. The Society of Legal Scholars organizes the Conference “Central Questions about Law,” to be held in Preston, at the University of Central Lancashire, on September 3-6, 2019.
12. The IACL-AIDC roundtable will take place in Cusco, Peru, on October 24-26, 2019.
13. A new IACL research group on “New Frontiers of Federalism” was established.

Elsewhere Online

1. Karen Allen, Terrorism and organised crime: risks of shared responses, Institute for Security Studies
2. Anna-Maria Andreeva, The changing nature of courtroom evidence, Asser Today
3. Alden Fletcher, Is the Threat of ‘Fake Science’ Real?, Lawfare
4. Bruce Hoffman, The Domestic U.S. Terror Threat: What to Know, Council on Foreign Relations
5. Johanna Jacobsson, The Temporary Movement of Service Sector Workers After Brexit, DCU Brexit Institute Blog
6. Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz, On the Rule of Law Turn on Kirchberg – Part II: How the Court of Justice is Spelling out the Constitution’s Unwritten Understanding(s), Verfassungsblog
7. Katrina Mulligan, Trump’s DNI Pick Would Brief Dem Nominee Ahead of 2020, Just Security
8. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, The Massive Perils of the Latest U.N. Resolution on Terrorism, Just Security
9. Meg Russell, Robert Hazell, Can Boris Johnson ignore parliament and force a no deal Brexit?, Constitution Unit
10. Adam Smith, The “long arm” of the police: how “confidential” are family proceedings? UK Human Rights Blof
11. Eva van Vugt, Reforming the Dutch Constitution to ensure ‘Future Readiness’ of its Democracy, Constitutionnet