What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Sandeep Suresh, National Law University, Jodhpur, India

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 Supreme Court of India has upheld the constitutional validity of the regulations framed by the University Grants Commission prescribing minimum qualifications for national and state level entrance tests for appointment of teachers/assistant professor in colleges.
2. Germany’s highest court has struck down a ban on headscarves for state school teachers as unconstitutional.
3. The Supreme Court of India set aside the notification to include Jats in the Central list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) for according benefits of reservation to them.
4. The Supreme Court of the United States was petitioned to overturn a ruling denying her request for sex reassignment surgery.
5. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Quebec violated schools’ right to religious freedom.

New Scholarship

1. Catherine Turner, Transitional Constitutionalism and the Case of the Arab Spring, International and Comparative Law Quarterly (Forthcoming, 2015) (analyzing the relationship between the transition and the enactment of a new constitution for Egypt)
2. Ozan O. Varol,Constitutional Stickiness, 49 UC Davis Law Review (Forthcoming, 2016) (analyzing why many constitutional amendment and replacement processes produce relatively little change in substance and arguing that, even with low amendment thresholds, the constitutional status quo constrains future choices in specific and systemic ways)
3. Eric S Fish, Choosing Constitutional Remedies (March 16, 2015) (exploring several different aspects of the American doctrine of constitutional remedies, showing that it sometimes follows the logic of editorial restraint and sometimes the logic of purpose preservation)
4. Federico Fabbrini, Privacy and National Security in the Digital Age. European and Comparative Constitutional Perspectives, 20 Tilburg Law Review (2015) (introducing the theme of the protection of the right to privacy in a world characterized by rapid developments in digital technology and the need to fight terrorism)
5. Neil Walker, The Antinomies of Constitutional Authority, Edinburgh School of Law Research Paper No. 2015/11 (revisiting the question of the nature and viability of a post-state or cosmopolitan constitutionalism, and of its merits in comparison to state-centered constitutionalism, by reference to a number of deep-rooted antinomies within constitutional thought and practice)
6. Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh, A UK Exit from the EU: The End of the United Kingdom or a New Constitutional Dawn?, Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law (2015) (considering the impact of a UK exit from the EU on the UK devolutionary settlement, as well as considering its effects on Ireland)
7. Mark Walters, Succession to the Throne and the Architecture of the Constitution of Canada, Queen’s University Legal Research Paper No. 2015-001. (arguing that in light of the basic structure or ‘architecture’ of the Constitution of Canada, no formal amendment to Canadian constitutional law is required in response to the new rules of royal succession adopted in the United Kingdom)

In the News

1. United States has joined forces with Japan and the European Union to pressure China on new bank cyber security rules that have upset foreign companies.
2. Two Associates of Ex-Security Chief to Face Trial over Bribery in China.
3. Cambodia’s Parliament passed new election laws that are alleged to be potentially damaging to free speech.
4. Oregon Governor Kate Brown on Monday signed a new law that makes Oregon the first state in the nation to institute automatic voter registration.
5. France’s lower house of parliament passed a bill allowing patients near the end of their lives to stop medical treatment and request deep sedation until they die.
6. America’s largest Presbyterian denomination has announced a change to its constitution that allows for a more inclusive definition of marriage.

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The School of Government at LUISS Guido Carli University is pleased to invite applications for the 4th edition of the Summer School-Jean Monnet Module on ‘Parliamentary Democracy in Europe’ to be held in Rome, Italy from 14-24th July, 2015. The application form is now available here. The application deadline is 4 May 2015.
2. Abstracts for the 5th International Conference on Language, Law and Discourse to be held from 27 September-1 October, 2015, have to be submitted before March 24, 2015. The conference is being organised by Orbero University School of Law, Psychology and Social Work.
3. The 7^th Conference on the Future of Adversarial and Inquisitorial Systems will be held from 18-20 May, 2015 at the University of Warwick, UK. You can register for the conference here.
4. Paper proposals are invited for the Intergenerational Justice Conference to be held on 9 October 2015 at the World Trade Institute, Bern, Switzerland.
5. The Fordham Urban Law Center is pleased to announce the call for proposals for the 2nd Annual International & Comparative Urban Law Conference to be held on 29 June 2015 in Paris, France.
6. In conjunction with the Institute of Law (Jersey), Juris Diversitas will co-host a symposium on ‘Micro-jurisdictions and Small States’ in St Helier, Jersey on 17 April 2015. Interested participants may visit the organiser’s website here.
7. The Columbia Human Rights Law Review (HRLR) is publishing a symposium edition about the relationship between the ‘U.S. War on Terror and Human Rights Law’. Individuals interested in publishing should submit a paper proposal of no more than 1000 words by no later than April 20, 2015.
8. The Centre for Asian Legal Studies at NUS is inviting abstracts of papers for the 6^th Asian Constitutional Law Forum to be held from 10-11 December, 2015.

Elsewhere Online

1. Susan Finder, Hong Kong needs an advisory committee to examine complex cross-border legal issues, South China Morning Post.
2. Gautam Bhatia, Freedom of Religion and Non-Discrimination: The Haji Ali Dargah’s Decision to Ban Women from Access to the Inner Sanctum, Indian Constitutional Law & Philosophy.
3. Lissa Griffin, Looking at Collateral Consequences of Conviction, Comparative Law Prof Blog.
4. Akhil Reed Amar, Clones on the Court, The Atlantic.
5. K.Chandru, Judges, castes and social justice, The Hindu