—Mohamed Abdelaal, Alexandria University (Egypt)
In this new 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 Constitutional Court of Jordan ruled that the constitution does not stipulate unified law for all courts.
2. Greece’s top administrative court ruled that wage cuts for police, the military and firefighters are unconstitutional.
3. The French Constitutional Council validated Pension Reform.
4. A Thai court ruled that a postponement of coming elections is constitutional.
5. The Indonesia Constitutional Court upheld the Riau General Elections Commission’s (KPUD) decision regarding the validity of the Riau province elections.
In the News
1. Zsolt Hernadi, chief of Hungarian oil group MOL, appealed an arrest warrant against him to the Croatian Constitutional Court.
2. Former Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) minister claims the proposed new Egyptian constitution is “anti-freedom.”
3. The new Egyptian Constitution nudges Christian hope.
4. Tunisia is set for a final vote on a new constitution.
5. The Polish Parliament will consider a draft amendment to the law on public assembly that bans hoods and other face coverings.
6. A proposal to reform Italy’s discredited election law reached the Parliament.
7. The new Nepal Assembly convenes to write a constitution.
New Scholarship
1. Richard A. Epstein, The Classical Liberal Constitution (Harvard University Press, 2014) (offering a distinctive third approach to constitutional law that helps explain why the current Supreme Court’s conceptual framework is in a state of serious intellectual disrepair on many, but by no means all, issues)
2. Gary Lawson, Classical Liberal Constitution or Classical Liberal Construction?, NYU Journal of Law & Liberty (forthcoming) (reviewing Richard Epstein’s book “The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government,” and arguing that originalism can carry all of the necessary interpretative water without a supplementing framework drawn from classical liberal political theory)
3. Rivka Weill, The New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism Notwithstanding: On Judicial Review and Constitution-Making, 62 American Journal of Comparative Law 127 (2014) (arguing that judicial review challenges conventional accounts of how models of constitutionalism come about and which systems should be classified as belonging to the new Commonwealth model of constitutionalism and that its strength is mainly dictated by the method used for constitution-making)
4. Patrick J. Charles, Historicism, Originalism and the Constitution: The Use and Abuse of the Past in American Jurisprudence, McFarland Publishing (2014) (using debates of past commentators to offer a historical based approaches to adjudicating constitutional questions, and proposes an approach to accomplish the objectives of historical accuracy and objectivity, and therefore legitimacy)
5. Mila Versteeg, Unpopular Constitutionalism, 89 Indiana Law Journal (forthcoming 2014) (arguing that the widely held image of constitutions, that they are new-universally as an expression of the people’s views and values, does not correspond with the reality of constitution-making around the world)
6. Nicholas Bagley, The Puzzling Presumption of Reviewability, 127 Harvard Law Review (forthcoming 2014) (explaining how the presumption in favor of judicial review of agency action is puzzling especially when it comes to canons of statutory construction, and that where the best construction of a statute indicates that Congress meant to preclude judicial review, the courts should cease invoking the presumption to contort statutes that appear to preclude review to nonetheless permit it)
Calls for Papers
1. The Journal of Politics and Law of the Canadian Center of Science and Education issued a call for papers for 2014.
2. The Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal (AELJ) invites submissions for its annual symposium, Transparency and Disclosure in Private and Government Data Collection to be held this spring at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York, New York.
3. The Jackson School Journal of International studies is now accepting submissions for its Autumn 2014 issue.
4. Copenhagen University Journal of Political Science & Law invites submissions for the “International Courts and National Courts, Politics and Society Conference,” which will take place on September 11-12, 2014, at the University of Copenhagen.
5. Organizers invite proposals for the Third International Young Researchers Conference on Law, to be held on April 18-19, 2014 in Tirana, Albania.
Elsewhere on Blogs
1. Jacob Gershman, About Half of State AGs Favor Same-Sex Marriage, Wall Street Journal Law Blog
2. Ruthann Robson, The Supreme Court’s Heavy First Amendment Docket this Term, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
3. Eugene Volokh, Foreign law in American courts: Could it jeopardize American constitutional rights?, The Volokh Conspiracy
4. Nancy Northup, Mass. Buffer Zone Law Protects Free Speech, Safe Entrance to Abortion Facilities, ACS Blog
5. Gerard Magliocca, The German Prosecution Service: Guardians of the Law?, Concurring Opinions Blog
6. Lyle Denniston, Partial win for Little Sisters, SCOTUSblog
7. Tina Orsolic Dalessio, The Interplay of Direct and Indirect Democracy at Work: Croatia’s Battle Over the Rights of Same-Sex Couples, Jurist
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