What’s New in Comparative Law

—Angélique Devaux, French Qualified Attorney (Notaire Diplômée), LL.M American Law (IUPUI Robert H. McKinney School of Law)

In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in comparative 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 comparative public law blogosphere.

To submit relevant developments for our weekly feature on “What’s New in Comparative Public Law,” please email contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. Libya: The Supreme Constitutional Court rules that general elections held in June were unconstitutional and that the country’s parliament and government, which were constituted from that vote, should be dissolved.
2. Hungary: Supreme Court rules Budapest homeless decree too harsh.
3. Oregon: Federal Court rules “secular humanism” a religion extends equal protection rights to atheists.
4. Bangladesh: Supreme Court upholds death sentence for Islamist politician.
5. Dominic Republic: The Dominican Republic withdraws from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
6. Indiana: Supreme Court rules right to work law is constitutional.

In the News

1. United Nations: Four judges elected to serve on International Court of Justice.
2. European Court of Human Rights: Court rules that Czech competition authority is not authorized to enter business premises without a warrant.
3. Armenia: The Constitutional Court of Armenia is due to examine the conformity of the treaty of Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union to the country’s basic law.
4. Uganda: The Ugandan government could introduce new wide-reaching anti-gay laws before the end of the year.
5. Thailand: A criminal court sentenced university student to two-and-a-half years in prison for insulting King in Facebook post.
6. Greece: Rabbinical divorce recognized.
7. United States: Supreme Court agrees to hear new challenge to “Obamacare.”
8. Alabama: Voters passed a constitutional amendment that bars the use of foreign law.
9. Nevada: Voters approve the creation of an intermediate appellate court.

New Scholarship

1. Katerina Pantazatou, Tax Secrecy and Tax Transparency: The Relevance of Confidentiality in Greek Tax Law (examining the Greek law’s approach to tax secrecy and tax transparency)
2. Philip Hamburger, The Second Commerce Clause (theorizing the existing of a second Commerce Clause that calls into doubt the doctrine of the Dormant Commerce Clause)
3. Nicola Lupo, Lucia Scaffardi, The Uses of Comparative Law in Legislative Drafting, Legislative Drafting, N. Lupo & L. Scaffardi (Eds.), Comparative Law in Legislative Drafting: The Increasing Importance of Dialogue Amongst Parliaments (Eleven Int’L Publishing 2014) (examining how legislatures make use of foreign law)
4. Cora Hoexter and Morné Olivier, The Judiciary in South Africa, Juta Law, 2014 (evaluating the South African judiciary)
5. Marc Blanquet,Francette Fines, Joel Andriantsimbazovina, Hélène Gaudin, Les grands arrêts de la Cour de Justice de l’Union européenne, T.1, Droit Constitutionnel et Institutionnel de l’Union Européenne, Dalloz-Grands Arrets (2014) (commenting on case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union) (in French)
6. Christian Marxsen, The Promise of Global Democracy – The International Impact of Civil Society, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, forthcoming (exploring how civil society organizations at the international level can help democratize international organizations and lawmaking processes)

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Lyle Denniston, Sixth Circuit: Now, a split on same-sex marriage, scotusblog.com
2. Beth Van Schaack, South Africa Constitutional Court on Universal Jurisdiction: Validating the Obvious, Justsecurity.org
3. Abbie Kamin, Photo ID Laws and the Nov. 4 Election: Discrimination Continues at the Polls, American Constitution Society for Law and Policy blog.
4. Daniel Regan, Do we need a Global Constitution for a Globalised Age? The London School of Economics and Political Science blog
5. Patt Morrison, The Berlin Wall takes a fall – 25 years on, Los Angeles Times
6. Richard Kelsey, There is No Constitutional Right to Marriage … Of Any Kind, Jurist.org

Call for Papers

1. The editors of the European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review invite EU case law annotations for its upcoming issue.
2. The Jean Monnet Chair of European Public Law, University in Zagreb-Faculty of Law calls for papers for the 13^th Jean Monnet Seminar, EU Law and Risk Regulation, to be held on April 19-25, 2015 in Inter University Center, Dubrovnik.
3. Columbia Law School’s Center for the Study of Law and Culture, theUniversity of Southern California Center for Law, History & Culture, UCLA School of Law, and Georgetown University Law School invite submissions for the eleventh meeting of the Law & Humanities Junior Scholar Workshop to be held at Columbia Law School on June 8 & 9, 2015.
4. Transnational Dispute Management calls for papers for its special issue on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union and Canada (CETA).
5. ABA Section of International Law calls for articles for the spring issue of International Law News on the theme of South America.
6. The Irish Society of Comparative Law and the School of Law of the University of Limerick calls for papers for its sixth annual conference of the ISCL to be held in Limerick on 5-6 June 2015.