What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Sandeep Suresh, Research Associate, Daksh India (Rule of Law Project)

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 Thai Ombudsman’s office stated that it will ask the Constitutional Court to rule on whether a government ban on misleading or rude speech about a referendum over a draft charter is unconstitutional.
2. The Turkish Constitutional Court rejected petitions by opposition lawmakers seeking to lift immunity for members of Parliament.
3. The Indian Supreme Court directed the central government to formulate a national policy for proper rehabilitation of rape survivors.
4. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors in Georgia violated the Constitution by striking every black prospective juror in a death penalty case against a black defendant.
5. Alternattiva Demokratika secretary general Ralph Cassar stated that the allocation of additional seats in Malta’s parliament should be decided by the Constitutional Court.

In the News

1. Ukraine passed a constitutional amendment focusing on judicial reforms aimed at curbing corruption within the judiciary.
2. The EU Executive issued a warning to the Polish government on the ground that recent changes made to the structure of the country’s constitutional court could damage the rule of law.
3. The Women & Child Development Ministry in India released the draft bill on “Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation)” for further consultation.
4. Pakistan’s Senate passed a constitutional amendment creating new qualification criterion for the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and members of the Election Commission.
5. China indicated that it will ignore the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on the South China Sea dispute.

New Scholarship

1. Joseph Eliot Magnet, Constitution Making in Eritrea: Why It Is Necessary to Go Back to the Future, 8 African Journal of Legal Studies (2015) (arguing that implementation of Eritrea’s 1997 Constitution would likely bring Eritrea’s two large nationalities into conflict with its eight smaller nationalities with high risk for violent civil strife that could spill over into neighboring countries)
2. Martijn Van den Brink, The Origins and the Potential Federalising Effects of the Substance of Rights Test, in Dimitry Kochenov, EU Citizenship and Federalism: The Role of Rights (forthcoming 2016) (examining the ability of the substance of rights test introduced by the European Court of Justice to change the federal balance of competences within the EU and questioning whether it would be desirable to use this test in a far-reaching manner)
3. Zachary D. Clopton, Judging Foreign States, 94 Washington University Law Review (2016) (identifying and cataloging the circumstances in which U.S. courts sit in judgment of foreign states and discussing the various doctrines and principles relating to the issue of sitting in judgment on foreign state acts)
4. Katerina Linos, How to Select and Develop International Law Case Studies: Lessons from Comparative Law and Comparative Politics, 109 American Journal of International Law 475 (2015) (putting forward and discussing a comprehensive approach to be applied by international courts, commentators and textbooks while evaluating compliance with treaties by different states)
5. Tom G. Daly, The End of Law’s Ambition: Human Rights Courts, Democratisation and Social Justice, iCourts Working Paper Series No. 67 (2016) (analyzing the changing role and duties of regional human rights courts from being merely the dispensers of individual justice to becoming engines of wholesale societal transformation at the state level as well).
6. Attila Badó and Peter Mezei, Comparativism and the Fundamental Law – The Hungarian Fundamental Law in Light of the Seven Constitutional Criteria of Raz (2016) (evaluating the Fundamental Law of Hungary through the lens of Joseph Raz’s seven constitutional criteria in order to undertake an analysis that is acceptable to those supportive and critical of the Fundamental Law)
7. Junko Kato and Seiki Tanaka, Comparative Taxation and Democratization: State Revenue Production and Democratization Revisited (2016) (tracking the evolution of modern taxation and how modern taxes have helped democratization)
8. Special Issue: Constitutionalism in Rough Seas: Balancing Religious Accommodation and Human Rights in, through, and despite, the Law, Mirjam Künkler, Hanna Lerner and Shylashri Shankar (Guest Editors), 60 The American Behavioral Scientist (2016)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law will conduct a one day Conference on the theme “Between Europe and the United States: The Israeli Supreme Court in Comparative Perspective” on June 27, 2016. The Conference is open to the public but interested participants must send an RSVP to ISCP@yu.edu with their name, affiliation and contact information.
2. The Research and Teaching Programme CoCoA (Comparing Constitutional Adjudication) will host a residential seminar on September 19-21, 2016 at the Law Department of University of Trento titled “Advanced Perspectives in Comparative Constitutional Law – Conversations with Margit Cohn.” Applications for admission must include a CV and a Statement of Interest, which must be sent to cocoa@unitn.it before June 18, 2016.
3. The University of Exeter Law School and ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences are organizing an International Conference on “European Constitutional Democracy in Peril: People, Principles, Institutions” on June 23-24, 2016 in Budapest.
4. The Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA-International Association of Lawyers) is conducting a research based competition for the“7th International Jacques Leroy Prize – Business and Human Rights.” The entries must focus on the impacts of climate change on human rights and the solutions companies offer. Interested participants must submit their written entries (trial argument, dissertation, study or commentary on a practical case) by post to UIA, 25 rue du Jour, 75001 Paris-France or by mail to uiacentre@uianet.org.
5. The International Institute of Knowledge Management, Sri Lanka is inviting abstracts for the “3rd International Conference on Social Sciences.” The Conference will be conducted in Bali, Indonesia on September 19-21, 2016.
6. The University of Leeds announced the “School of Law Inaugural Postgraduate Research Conference 2016: Law, Justice and Austerity” to be held on September 13, 2016. Abstracts plus a short (academic or work) biographical summary should be sent to L.Harding@leeds.ac.uk by June 24, 2016.

Elsewhere Online

1. Michael Addaney, Uganda: Why the Constitutional Court should rule on the right to health, AfricLaw
2. Laurence H. Tribe and Joshua Matz, Will eight justices become the new normal?, The Washington Post
3. Faizan Musthafa, Does the government want ‘parrot judges’?, LiveLaw
4. Gautam Bhatia, The “Balancing” Test and Its Discontents, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
5. Ruthann Robson, Daily Read: Clay v. United States (1971), Constitutional Law Prof Blog