What’s New in Public Law

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—Teodora Miljojkovic, PhD student, Central European University, Budapest/Vienna

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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 contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the European Court of Justice’s findings in the Weiss ruling on the legal validity of the ECB’s decisions on the Public Sector Purchase Program (PSPP) “manifestly exceed the judicial mandate conferred upon the CJEU in Art. 19(1).” The FCC concluded that the “CJEU thus acted ultra vires, which is why, in that respect, its Judgment has no binding force in Germany.”
2. The Trump Administration asked the Supreme Court to temporarily stop the release of the Mueller’s Grand Jury findings to the House of Representatives.
3. The US Supreme Court unanimously overturned the convictions in the infamous “BridgeGate Scandal” case, concluding that not all local officials’ corruptive acts are federal crimes.
4. Malawi’s Supreme Court in a unanimous decision rejected President Mutharika’s appeal and upheld its previous ruling on the annulment presidential election result.
5. United States 9^th Circuit Appeals Court ruled that the US Military is allowed to construct a base in Okinawa, Japan, despite the environmental activist’s concerns.

In the News

1. European Court of Justice responds in an unprecedented press release to the German Constitutional Court ruling, stating that it will not comment on national courts’ judgements, but also noting that the ECJ alone has the right to interpret EU law.
2. Germany passes a law banning the “gay conversation therapy” for minors.
3. The US Republican party members of the Senate contemplate the possibility for Trump to fill in another Supreme Court seat.
4. Poland postpones presidential elections due to COVID-19 pandemic, without setting a new date for the poll.
5. EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson raises concerns over the fact that COVID-19 crisis spiked the demand for child sex-abuse content up to 30% in some EU member states.
6. Facebook names first members of the Oversight Board, which will be able to overturn decisions by the company and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on whether individual pieces of content on Facebook and Instagram are allowed and in accordance with the international freedom of expression standards.

New Scholarship

1. Elena A. Baylis, Regionalized Hybrid Courts, in Kirsten Ainley and Mark Kersten (eds), Hybrid Justice (2020) (discussing the development of hybrid criminal tribunals with the focus examples from Kosovo, Senegal, and South Sudan)
2. Adam S. Chilton, Kevin L. Cope, Charles Crabtree, and Mila Veersteg, Support for Restricting Liberty for Safety: Evidence During the COVID-19 Pandemic from the United States, Japan, and Israel (2020) (empirically examining the public support for COVID-19 related  restrictions on civil liberties in in three economically advanced democracies — the United States, Japan, and Israel)
3. Rosalind Dixon and David Landau, Constitutional End Games: Making Presidential Term Limits Stick, 71 Hastings Law Journal (2020) (arguing that weaker bans on re-election for consecutive terms, rather than permanent bans on any re-election, are the best response to the end game problem of president trying to extend their term of office)
4. Mark Tushnet and Bojan Bugaric, Populism and Constitutionalism: An Essay on Definitions and Their Implications (2020) (revisiting the definitions of populism and constitutionalism in order the assess the tensions between the two theoretical concepts)
5. Kenneth A. Stahl, Local Citizenship in a Global Age (forthcoming 2020) (examining the effect of globalisation on the relationship of local and federal citizenship)
6. Adam Chilton and Mila Versteeg, How Constitutional Rights Matter (2020) (empirically examining global constitutional rights enforcement)
7. Charles M. Fombad and Nico Steytler (eds), Corruption and Constitutionalism in Africa (2020) (examining the problem of corruption and measures meant to fight it in Africa)
8. Chris Hanretty, A Court of Specialists Judicial Behavior on the UK Supreme Court (forthcoming 2020) (offering the first quantitative study of decision-making on the UK Supreme Court)
9. Vlad Perju, Identity Federalism in Europe and the United States (2020) (examining the vague concept of state identity as a political safeguard of federalism, as well as its transformation from a constitutional discourse to an acknowledged constitutional doctrine)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism invites participants to register for the course “The Theory and Design of Constitutional Change”. This six-week course will be held live on Zoom starting on June 1, 2020.
2. McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and the Centre International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), in partnership with several word-class universities and institutions invites participants to the 2020 Online International Symposium on “Human Rights, the SDGs & the Law,” which will be held on May 15, 2020.
3. The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism invites participants to register for the course “The Future of Liberal Democracy: Global Dialogues with Leading Scholars”. The six-week course will be held live on Zoom starting on July 22, 2020.
4. Belgrade Legal Theory Group invites participants to the second online session of the COVID-19 emergency measures related series on topic “State of Emergency in Slovenia: The How of Emergency Decision-making,” which will be held on May 14, 2020.
5. The International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism invites all to join a free live online seminar on “How to Write a Book in Constitutional Law–and Get it Published: Advice from Scholars around the World,” on May 15, 2020.
6. The deadline for applications for the IACL Round Table “Democracy 2020: Assessing Constitutional Decay, Breakdown and Renewal Worldwide” has been extended until June 1, 2020.
7. COVID-DEM: How is COVID-19 Impacting Democracy? On 3 April the global research platform DEM-DEC launched the COVID-DEM Infohub, which aims to help democracy analysts worldwide track, compile, and share information on how State responses to COVID-19 are impacting on democracy. It contains curated information including databases, academic research, a ‘super blog’ providing access to analysis on over 30 blogs, policy analysis podcasts, and webinars. You can submit your own work and suggestions to feature on the Infohub, reaching an audience of thousands across over 100 countries.
8. The American Journal of International Law (AJIL) issued a worldwide call for papers for an Agora symposium on “The International Legal Order and the Global Pandemic.” The deadline for submissions is July 1, 2020.
   
9. ICON.S Portugal invites participants to an online session on “COVID-19 and Human Rights,” which will be held on May 11, 2020.

Elsewhere Online

1. Unnati Ghia, Dhruva Gandhi, The Anti-Stereotyping Principle: A Conundrum in Comparative Constitutional Law, IACL-AIDC Blog
2. Maximilian Steinbeis, We Super-Europeans, Verfassungsblog
3. Martin Mycielski, Appeal to  the Independent Judges of the Supreme Court, Verfassungsblog
4. Austin Sarat, Department of Justice Once Again Proves Its Loyalty to the President, Not the Rule of Law, VERDICT
5. Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s EU envoy: The choice is always yours, euobserver
6. Janet M. Calvo, Congress Reincarnates Discrimination Against American Citizens Because of Who They Marry, JURIST