What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Angelique Devaux, French Licensed Attorney (Notaire)

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. Congo’s Constitutional Court ruled that the president can stay in office beyond his mandate if there is a delay in presidential elections, which are slated for November.
2. Albania’s Constitutional Court held that the mandate of Socialist Party MP Koco Kokedhima is unconstitutional because a company of his won a public procurement contract after he was elected.
3. The Supreme Court of India upheld a set of defamation laws, finding them to be constitutionally valid.
4. Sudan’s Constitutional Court allowed the Al-Tayyar newspaper to resume publishing following more than a four-month suspension by the National Intelligence and Security Services.
5. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that although the state’s “Byzantine” school funding system urgently needs to be modernized, it is constitutional.

In the News

1. The Senate of Brazil voted to initiate an impeachment trial against President Dilma Rousseff for allegedly borrowing from state banks to cover a deficit and pay for social programs to secure her re-election in 2014.
2. The Administrative Department of Al-Bayda Appeals Court ruled that the amendment to the voting quorum of the Constitution Drafting Assembly was illegal.
3. The Italian Parliament gave final approval to a law recognizing same-sex civil unions.
4. China formally indicted Ling Jihua, one of the country’s most powerful men until a Ferrari crash derailed his career in 2012, on corruption and state-secrets charges.
5. The Steering Committee of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey met in Brussels to agree on the practicalities of how support through the Facility will be accelerated in the months to come.
6. The European Commission published a study on the evidentiary effects of authentic acts in the Member States of the European Union in the context of successions.
7. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed two pieces of legislation restricting abortion.

New Scholarship

1. Frank Emmert, The Argument for Robust Competition Supervision in Developing and Transition Countries, Journal of Governance and Regulation (forthcoming) (discussing market economic models and the best ways to introduce or reinforce competition supervision for developing and transition countries)
2. Stella Burch Elias, Testing Citizenship, 96 Boston Law Review (2016) (exploring recent developments in the statutory and regulatory naturalization requirements in seven countries—the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Australia—in order to identify potential options for reform to American nationality laws)
3. Shai Dothan, Comparative Views on the Right to Vote in International Law: The Case of Prisoners’ Disenfranchisement, in Comparative International Law (Anthea Roberts et al. eds.) (forthcoming) (examining the international right to vote in the context of prisoners’ disenfranchisement in national courts)
4. Margaret Ryznar and Michael Jacobs, Jr., Implementing Dodd-Frank Stress Testing, Indiana University Robert McKinney School of Law Research Paper No. 2016-18 (examining how banks should use the Dodd-Frank Act in order to prevent another crippling recession)
5. Jean-Sylvestre Bergé, A Need of Law? About a Long Term Research on a New Legal Concept: “Full Movement beyond Control” (identifying a new legal concept capable of specific legal treatment and competent to take in hand the particular issues raised by the phenomenon of “full movement beyond control” and the legitimate expectations it may create)
6. Barnali Choudhury, Social Disclosure, Berkeley Business Law Journal (forthcoming), (examining the utility of disclosure rules in corporate and securities law to promote social policies in comparative perspective)
7. Alenka Kuhelj and Bojan Bugaric, A Day in the Life of Post-Communist Europe, Hague Journal of the Rule of Law (2016) (presenting stories about citizens’ interactions with various rule of law institutions in transitional constitutionalism in the “post-Communist world”)
8. Bojan Bugaric, Protecting Democracy inside the EU: On Article 7 TEU and the Hungarian Turn to Authoritarianism in Reinforcing Rule of Law Oversight in the European Union, CLOSA, Carlos (ur.), KOCHENOV, Dimitry (eds.) (2016) (examining the new Hungarian constitutional order in light of the EU democracy protection clause)
9. Wolfgang Schoen, Tax Law Scholarship in Germany and the United States, Working Paper of the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance No. 2016-7 (presenting a comparative analysis between the United States and Germany of the different ways tax law scholarship is understood and performed)
10. Neil Walker, Constitutional Pluralism Revisited, European Law Journal (forthcoming 2016) (revisiting the theory of constitutional pluralism)
11. Benjamin Shmueli, Tax, Don’t Ban: A Comparative Look at Harmful but Legitimate Islamic Family Practices Actionable under Tort Law, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (2016) (using tort law in order to study whether Islamic law should apply to Muslims couples living in western countries)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The LUISS School of Government and PADEMIA invite applications for the Summer School “Parliamentary Democracy in Europe” on “Legislative initiative and agenda-setting in the European Union” to be held in Rome, Italy on July 11-15, 2016.
2. The ASCL Younger Comparativists Committee issued a call for papers to fill a panel on “New Perspectives in Comparative Law” to be held at the ASCL Annual Meeting on October 28-29, 2016 at the University of Washington in Seattle.
3. The Max Planck Institute Luxembourg is undertaking a European Commission-funded Study on the laws of national civil procedure of the 28 Member States and the enforcement of European Union law. All lawyers are welcome to respond to the questionnaire online.
4. The Universidade Estadal Paulista “Julio De Mesquita Filho” issued a call for papers for the IV Seminar on State’s Law titled “Globalization and the Grounds of Citizenship” to be held on November 22-25, 2016 in Sau Paulo, Brazil.
5. Oil, Gas and Energy Law Intelligence invites submissions for a special issue on “Oil and Gas Law and Policy in West Africa.”
6. The East African Community Secretariat issued a call for papers for the East African Community Law Journal.

Elsewhere Online

1. Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei, Liberia’s Constitutional future: Religious and centralized? ConstitutionNet
2. Burcu Yüksel, The Turkish Constitutional Court on International parental child abduction: judgment of Marcus Frank Cerny, Family Law
3. Kudzani Ndlovu, Challenging anti-terrorism laws in Swaziland: When the judiciary becomes the stumbling block, AfricLaw
4. Steven D. Schwinn, District Judge Says Obamacare Reimbursements are Invalid, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
5. Christof Heyns and Thomas Probert, Securing the Right to Life: A cornerstone of the human rights system, Blog of the European Journal of International Law