What’s New in Comparative Public Law

—Angélique Devaux, French Qualified Attorney (Notaire Diplômée), LL.M American Law (IUPUI Robert H. McKinney School of Law)

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. France’s Constitutional Court upholds the deprivation of a French-Moroccan jihadist of his French nationality.
2. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on housing discrimination and traffic stops.
3. The U.S Supreme Court to hear case on the constitutionality over drugs used in prisoners executions.
4. The Romanian Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional the law on cyber security.
5. The Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled constitutional the Russian civil code rule allowing a debtor to hand over property to a bank with which he had a mortgage.
6. South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld an appeal court against former MP for sedition and violating the National Security Law by organizing secret party meeting.
7. The Columbia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the Fenaco coal railway is prohibited to run overnight due to noise. 

New Scholarship

1. Stephen Gardbaum, Are Strong Constitutional Courts Always a Good Thing for New Democracies? Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Vol. 53, No.2, 2015 (arguing that the most important and essential goal for transitional democracies is establishing and maintaining the independence of the judiciary)
2. Cristina Fasone and Nicola Lupo, Transparency vs. Informality in Legislative Committees: Comparing the US House of Representatives, the Italian Chamber of Deputies and the European Parliament, The Journal of Legislatives Studies, 2015, Taylor and Francis (assessing the relationship between transparency of the legislative process and legislative capacity of parliamentary committees in the light of the ICT revolution)
3. Mohamed Arafa, Whiter Egypt? Against Religious Fascism and Legal Authoritarianism: Pure Revolution, Popular Coup, or a Military Coup D’Etat?, Indiana International and Comparative Law Review, Vol. 24, No.4, 2014 (providing a concise framework of the theoretical and ethical underpinnings of Egyptian politics, discussing the definition of the relevant religious laws and legislation in Egypt and how they can be enacted under Islamic law in the light of the flexible Sharia’s definition and interpretation, especially within the new provisions of the 2014 Constitution)
4. Richard W. Garnett, Chief Justice Rehnquist, Religious Freedom, and the Constitution, Bradford P. Wilson, ed., The Constitutional Legacy of William H. Rehnquist (West Academic Press, Forthcoming 2015)(reviewing Rehnquist’s contributions to the Court’s Religion Clauses doctrine)
5. Aileen Kavanagh, What’s so Weak about ‘Weak-Form Review’? The Case of the UK Human Rights Act 1998, International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON) (forthcoming 2015) (explaining the legal and political dynamics surrounding the operation of the UK Human Rights Act by engaging the distinction between “strong-form” and “weak-form” review)
6. Ling Li, ‘Rule of Law’ in a Party-State – A Conceptual Interpretive Framework of The Constitutional Reality of China, Asian Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 2(1), 2015, pp.1-20 (identifying and conceptualizing the structural features of the Party-state and proposing a “dual normative system” as a framework to interpret the constitutional reality of China)
7. Brian Leiter, Constitutional Law, Moral Judgment, and the Supreme Court as Super-Legislature, text of the 24th Mathew O. Tobriner Memorial Lecture in Constitutional Law to be presented at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, January 12, 2015 (explaining how the U.S. Supreme Court is operating as a kind of super-legislature by making decisions based on the moral and political values of the justices, and not on the basis of legally binding standards)

In the News

1. Fighting broke out in Nepal’s Parliament following a heated debate about drafting a new constitution.
2. Thailand impeaches former Prime Minister over corruption.
3. After Saudi King Abdullah dies, brother Salman has been pronounced king of Saudi Arabia.
4. Macedonia Parliament voted to ban same-sex marriage by defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
5. Egypt’s Court of Cassation ordered retrial for policemen connected to 37 deaths
6. The Caribbean Court of Justice celebrated its ten years of operation with a forum at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, entitled “CCJ Symposium: Advancing the case of Regionalism and Indigenous Jurisprudence”.
7. Madagascar’s opposition is to challenge the appointment of Prime Minister in the constitutional court after the administrative court denied to hear the case.
8. A Parisian criminal court convicted three people for anti-gay messages posted on Twitter.
9. EU parliament debated new recommendations for TTIP.
10. The European Central Bank announced a massive bond-buying program into the Eurozone.

Calls for Papers

1. Koç University Law School, Boston College Law School and the International Society of Public Law invite submissions for a full-day workshop on unamendable constitutional provisions, to be held on the campus of Koç University Law School in Istanbul on Tuesday, June 9, 2015.
2. The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies calls for papers for a conference on “Anti-Democratic Ideology and Criminal Law under Fascist, National Socialist and Authoritarian Regimes” to be held in London on 10-11 September 2015.
3. Latcrit calls for proposals for the Twentieth Anniversary Conference of Latcrit to be held in Southern California on October 1-3, 2015. The theme is Critical Constitutionalism.
4. The McGill Graduate Law Conference calls for papers for its conference to be held in Montreal, Canada on May 29-30, 2015.
5. The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University invites submissions of paper proposals for an international conference on Islam in Russia to be held on October 15-16, 2015.
6. The University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, in partnership with The University of Auckland, New Zealand calls for paper for a symposium to explore developments and trends in corporate governance markets to be held in Ottawa, Canada on June 19-20, 2015.
7. University of Essex, School of Law calls for papers for its ILA British Branch Spring Conference on International Law as a Mechanism for Justice to be held on May 29-30, 2015.
8. The Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and the Institute of Law, Politics and Sustainability call for papers for the First Edition of the International Colloquium on Current Issues in Agricultural Law in a Global Perspective to be held in Pisa, Italy on September 17-18, 2015.

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Alan Riley, The resilience of the rule of law, opendemocracy.net
2. Steven D. Schwinn, No Remedy for Inmate when Authorities take Medical Settlement for Cost of Incarceration, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
3. Michael Muskal, What’s next after Supreme Court agrees to review execution protocols? Los Angeles Times
4. Anne Applebaum, Europe has survived terrorist attacks before, The Washington Post
5. Ruthann Robson, Alabama District Judge Declares State’s Same-Sex Marriage Bans Unconstitutional, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
6. Harlan Cohen, International Law as Behavior Symposium: An Agenda, Opinio Juris
7. Chris Wester, The Evolution of a More Perfect Union: The Development of Same-Sex Marriage in the United States, Jurist.org