What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Margaret Lan Xiao, Visiting Scholar, East Asian Legal Studies Center, UW-Madison Law School EALSC

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. In Jakarta, the Constitutional Court launches hearings on more than 800 election-related disputes.
2. Nurak Mapraneet has been elected the new president of Thailand’s Constitutional Court.
3. Russia’s Constitutional Court upholds limits on jury trial for minors.
4. Japan’s Supreme Court upholds verdict in intelligence fraud case.
5. The UK Supreme Court has ruled that limited liability partnership members will enjoy whistleblower protection.
6. Canadian Supreme Court Justice Louis LeBel announces his retirement plan.

In the news

1. Cambodia’s National Assembly unanimously passes three laws on judicial reform.
2. The Afghan Parliament will soon decide whether to ratify a newly-introduced anti-money laundering law.
3. In Egypt, a draft on amending the Political Participation Law and Parliamentary Elections Law has been finalized.
4. The Ukrainian Parliament votes on decentralization.
5. In Thailand, the army declares martial law and proposes fresh elections in August.
6. France’s anti-smacking law, which seeks to ban corporal punishment, faces strong opposition.

New Scholarship

1. Dawood I. Ahmed & Tom Ginsburg, Constitutional Islamization and Human Rights: The Surprising Origin and Spread of Islamic Supremacy in Constitutions, (U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 477) (arguing that Islamic supremacy clauses are not inherently incompatible or incoherent with the values of liberal democracy and that they may even help promote and expand the protection of Constitutional rights)
2. Suzie Navot, Israel: Creating a Constitution — The Use of Foreign Precedents by the Supreme Court (1994-2010), (in T Groppi and M Ponthoreau (eds), The Use of Foreign Precedents by Constitutional Judges, Hart Publishing, 2013) (showing American law’s influence in Israel)
3. Gerald J. Clark, The Constitutional Protection of Information in a Digital Age, (Suffolk University Law Review, Vol. 47, p. 267, 2014) (reviewing a series of recent developments in the constitutional treatment of access to digital information and data)
4. David Pozen, Self-Help and the Separation of Powers, (Yale Law Journal, Vol. 124, forthcoming) (rethinking the American separation of powers with reference to self-help and countermeasures)
5. Tamara Lothian, Democracy, Law and Global Finance: A Legal and Institutional Perspective, (Columbia Law and Economics Working Paper No. 478) (analyzing the role played by finance in the long-term mission of achieving a desirable socially inclusive growth, focusing on the several interrelated aspects of lack of democratic accountability, the relation between redistribution and economic recovery, and finance’s connection with the real economy)

Calls for Papers

1. The Younger Comparativists Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law has issued a call for papers for a workshop on comparative business and financial law, to be held on November 7-8, 2014 at Davis, California.
2. Cleveland State Law Review and the Education Law Association has issued a call for papers for a symposium on “Desegregation, Diversity, and Re-segregation,” to be held on October 2014.
3. The Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law has issued a call for papers for an International Business Law Scholars’ Roundtable, to be held on October 10, 2014 at Brooklyn Law School.
4. The Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies and the Buchman Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University has issued a call for papers for a symposium on “Law Between Normativity and Pragmatism,” to be held on Nov. 10-11, 2014 at TAU.
5. The Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and several other institutions have collectively issued a call for papers for the 9th Annual Minerva/ICRC Conference on International Humanitarian Law, to be held on 3-4 November 2014 at Jerusalem.

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Lyle Denniston, Constitution Check: Has the Supreme Court Already Tipped its Hand on Same-Sex Marriage?, Constitution Daily
2. Bob Corker, Congress Should Update the 9/11 Law on the Use of Military Force, The Washington Post
3. Paul Krugman, Is Piketty All Wrong?, The New York Times
4. Jacob Gershman, Appeals Court Questions Solicitor General in Motorola Antitrust Case, The Wall Street Journal
5. Andrew Seow Xian Wen, Expulsion of the Roma from France; A Breach of EU law?, KSLR Blog Series