What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Rohan Alva, Advocate, New Delhi

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. The Polish Constitutional Court invalidated legislation aimed at restricting the Court’s powers, and the national government announced that it will “ignore the court’s ruling.”
2. The Supreme Court of Philippines ruled that Senator Grace Poe is eligible to contest the presidential elections as an independent candidate.
3. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Apple Inc.’s appeal of a decision holding the company liable for engaging in a conspiracy that violated federal antitrust laws.
4. The Otsu District Court, Japan ordered that two nuclear facilities must be closed even though they were certified to be safe reactors.
5. The US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico upheld a ban that Puerto Rico imposes on same-sex marriages, observing that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges does not necessarily apply to Puerto Rico.

In the News

1. In Hungary, President Janos Ader stated that he considered recent legislative amendments, which shelter the central bank and state postal services from questions on how they utilise public money, constitutionally infirm and that he has invited the nation’s Constitutional Court to rule on the validity of the laws.
2. In India, the Rajya Sabha passed the Real Estate Bill. The initial version of the Bill did not receive support in the Rajya Sabha, leading to the government making numerous changes in the bill in order for it to receive wider acceptance.
3. The West Virginian legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto and passed legislation that prohibits the “second-trimester abortion method.”
4. Justice B.S. Chauhan, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, was appointed as the chairperson of the Law Commission of India.
5. In Sierra Leone, President Ernest Bai Korma declined to grant presidential assent to a bill that would have legalised abortions in the country.

New Scholarship

1. K. K. Lahiri, Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, Genesis, Evolution and Analysis (2016) (examining provisions of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act in India)
2. Christa Rautenbach, The South African Constitutional Court’s Use of Foreign Precedent in Matters of Religion: Without Fear or Favour?, 18 Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal (2015) (exploring the use of comparative constitutional law by the South African Constitutional Court in cases on religion)
3. Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr., Privacy Revisited: A Global Perspective on the Right to be Left Alone (2016) (examining in comparative fashion factors that have led to privacy receiving low level protection in the United States of America)
4. Brigitte Geissel and Sergiu Gherghina, Constitutional Deliberative Democracy and Democratic Innovations, in Constitutional Deliberative Democracy in Europe (2016) (evaluating the increase in citizens being consulted for effecting constitutional change and comparatively analysing the future possibilities such forms of constitutional consultation hold)
5. Stefanus Hendrianto, The Divergence of a Wandering Court: Socio-Economic Rights in the Indonesian Constitutional Court, 16 Australian Journal of Asian Law (2016) (assessing the interpretation of social rights by the Constitutional Court of Indonesia and contrasting it with the interpretative methodology the Court has adopted for individual rights)
6. Lolwa N Alfadhel, TRIPS and the Rise of Counterfeiting: A Comparative Examination of Trademark Protection and Border Measures in the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council, Journal of Trade, Law, and Development (forthcoming) (setting out the problems of harmonization resulting from the grafting of Intellectual Property Rights onto the legal framework of Gulf Cooperation Council States and considering how border control functions as an important means of enforcement in fighting against the expanding transit of counterfeit goods)
7. Edina Harbinja, Legal Nature of Emails: A Comparative Perspective, 14 Duke Law & Technology Review 227 (2016) (examining the differences in the treatment of email under the U.S. and U.K. legal regimes and arguing for harmonization within these systems)
8. Ernest A. Young, The European Union: A Comparative Perspective (2015) (comparing the federalisms of Europe and the United States and arguing that Europe can be sensibly viewed from both federal and intergovernmental perspectives)
9. Mohammed Nuruzzaman, China’s Rise, the USA and Global Order: Contested Perspectives and an Alternative Approach, International Area Studies Review (2016) (highlighting the missing points in the debates on China’s projected economic preeminence and emphasizing an alternative approach to account for the rise of Chinese power)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, invites PhD. candidates for a workshop on “The Disintegration of Europe” to be held on May 30-31, 2016. Interested Ph.D. candidates must send in their applications by April 1, 2016.
2. The Journal of International Peace and Organization issued a call for papers for the first issue of Volume 91 of the journal. Abstracts of papers should be sent in by April 24, 2016.
3. The Loyola University Chicago School of Law is organising the “Seventh Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium” on November 4-5, 2016. Professor Reva Siegel, Yale Law School, will deliver the keynote address.
4. A call for papers has been issued by the LLH Association of Australasia for a conference on the theme “Spectacular Law,” which will be held on December 8-10, 2016 at the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong. Abstracts and panel proposals must be submitted by May 15, 2016.
5. Papers are invited by the Lisbon Law Review for its second issue of 2016. All papers must be sent in by June 1, 2016.

Elsewhere Online

1. Nicolas Carrillo-Santarelli, Part I: The intersection of Business and Human Rights at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Oxford Human Rights Hub
2. Pierre de Vos, Why the Constitutional Court stopped the eviction of a 76 year-old man from his house in Mamelodi, Constitutionally Speaking
3. Tomas Tadeusz Koncewicz, The Polish Constitutional Crisis and “Politics of Paranoia”, Verfassungsblog
4. Ryan Stoa, Is Water a Commodity or a Human Right? Lessons from Flint, JURIST – Forum
5. Remember Miamingi, South Sudan’s endless transition: The illusive search for a “Permanent” Constitution, ConstitutionNet
6. Sam Fowles, In Defence of Europe, UK Constitutional Law Association
7. Andrew Hamm, Legal history highlight: The failed election-year nomination of Abe Fortas, SCOTUSblog