What’s New in Public Law

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–Boldizsár-Szentgáli Tóth, Research Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Etvos Loránd University

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 Constitutional Court of South Africa decided a case about the compensation of domestic workers.
2. The Constitutional Court of Romania deferred early elections scenario, in case of the inability of the designated Prime Minister to form a government.
3. The Constitutional Court of Kosovo decided a major case about right to property, and right to a fair trial.
4. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that mining company Nevsun can be sued in Canada for alleged human rights violations abroad.
5. The European Court of Human Rights declared inadmissible the application in the case of Platini v. Switzerland.
6. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that the Removal of civil servant status by the administrative act is permissible under constitutional law.

In the News

1. The Constitution of Russia has been amended to extend the presidential term limit of Vladimir Putin. The amendment is subject to the approval of the Constitutional Court of Russia.
2. The Parliament of Myanmar voted against proposed amendments to the 2008 Constitution.
3. Virginia lawmakers passed a constitutional amendment establishing a commission to reshape the borders of electoral districts. This constitutional amendment is subject to a referendum, which is scheduled to take place in November 2020.
4. A proposal to amend the Constitution of Alabama was rejected by a referendum on March 3 2020.
5. The first draft of the new Constitution of Algeria was published on 12th March 2020.
6. The 4th General Assembly of the Arab Electoral Management Bodies took place in Nouakchott, Mauritania 4-6 March 2020.
7. The Parliament of South Africa discussed a proposal to amend Section 25 of the Constitution.
8. A constitutional amendment proposal was submitted in Ohio to legalize recreational marijuana.

New Scholarship

1. Lorne Neudorf, Strengthening the Parliamentary Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation: Lessons From Australia, Canadian Parliamentary Review (2020) (examining the design of the Australian scrutiny committee and its power of inquiry)
2. Guillaume Tusseau (ed.), Debating Legal Pluralism and Constitutionalism: New Trajectories for Legal Theory in the Global Age (2020) (presenting a comparative and theoretical approach to global constitutionalism and pluralism)
3. Franco Peirone, May the Law Rule the Past? What if the ECtHR had decided Berlusconi’s case (Italian Journal of Public Law, (2019) Italian Journal of Public Law (assessing the compatibility of the Italian legislative prohibition for convicted individuals from sitting in Parliament with case-law of the European Court of Human Rights)
4. Barbara Havelková and Mathias Möschel, Anti-Discrimination Law in Civil Law Jurisdictions (2020) (exploring the evolution of anti-discrimination law in European civil law jurisdictions)
5. Vijayashri Sripati, Constitution-Making under UN Auspices (2020) (critically examining the assistance of the United Nations, and its predecessor, in constitution-making projects around the world)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. Melbourne Law School invites application for a postdoctoral fellowship in Comparative Constitutional Law, starting from February 2021, with a full-time, fixed-term contract for one year. The deadline for submissions is April 19, 2020.
2. The International Law and Human Rights Unit, part of the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool, invites postgraduate research students to its 4th Annual Postgraduate Conference in International Law and Human Rights. The conference will take place on June 11-12, 2020. The deadline for submission is March 13, 2020.
3. Utrecht University’s Montaigne Centre for the Rule of Law and Administration of Justice, together with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), invites submissions for a conference on “Rule of Law from Below,” which will take place on October 29, 2020. The deadline for submission is March 15, 2020.
4. Ghent University’s Human Right Centre invites submission for a conference on “EU Convention on Human Rights Turns 70: Taking Stock, Thinking Forward,” to be held on November 18-20, 2020. The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2020.
5. The Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen), Department of History at Michigan State University, and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) at the University of Michigan invite submissions for a conference on “The Gender, Women’s Suffrage, and Political Power: Past, Present, and Future (GWSPP),” to be held on November 19-21, 2020. The deadline for submission is March 27, 2020.
6. The Arab Association of Constitutional Lawyers invites submission for an international conference on “The Status of Legal Education in the Arab World,” to be held in Tunisia, on June 6-7, 2020. The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2020.
7. Canadian Review for American Studies invites submissions of review articles. The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2020.

Elsewhere Online

1. Arianna Vedaschi and Chiara Graziani, Coronavirus, Health Emergencies and Public Law Issues, Verfassungsblog
2. Verfassungsblog published a series of blog posts on “Constitutions of Value”
3. Csaba Győri, Fighting Prison Overcrowding with Penal Populism – First Victim: the Rule of Law, Verfassungsblog
4. Suhrith Parthasarathy, The Supreme Court’s Cryptocurrency Judgment, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
5. Janine Silga, The Humanitarian Crisis at the Greek-Turkish border: The Result of an ‘Explosive’ Mix, Brexit Institute