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. Burundi’s Constitutional Court will examine the legality of President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term.
2. The Rajasthan High Court issues directions to curb and discourage female foeticide in the State of Rajasthan (India).
3. The United States Supreme Court heard arguments on the legality of same-sex marriages in the matter of Obergefell v Hodges.
4. A 5-judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments in a matter challenging the National Judicial Appointments Commission that was recently introduced with legislative backing for the appointment of constitutional courts judges in India.
5. The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Glossip v Gross in which the State of Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol used for executions was challenged.

New Scholarship

1. Alli Orr Larsen, Do Laws Have a Constitutional Shelf Life?, 94 Texas Law Review (Forthcoming) (exploring whether and how a law that was relevant and rational when written may lose its value as time and circumstances change)
2. Richard Albert, The Unamendable Core of the United States Constitution, in Andras Koltay (ed.), Comparative Perspectives on the Fundamental Freedom of Expression (inquiring whether the United States Constitution should require the implicit unamendability of the First Amendment’s rights of democratic expression)
3. Justice Gatuyu, The Typology of Kenyan Devolution; Upheavals of Transition, Structural Set-Up and the Muse for Certainty, SSRN Working Paper (April 1, 2015) (exploring devolution in the Kenyan Constitution and surveying the constitutional, statutory and case law on devolution)
4. Michael Waibel, Principles of Treaty Interpretation: Developed for and Applied by National Courts?, University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 16/2015 (April 17, 2015) (analyzes the way in which national courts apply and interpret treaties and international law)
5. Ioanna Tourkochoriti, ‘Disparate Impact’ and ‘Indirect Discrimination’: Assessing Responses to Systemic Discrimination in the U.S. and the E.U, European Journal of Human Rights (3/2015) (analysing the differences in the understanding and application of the idea of disparate impact in the U.S. and EU)
6. Mark Elliott, Beyond the European Convention: Human Rights and the Common Law, (2015) 68 Current Legal Problems (examining the potential of the common law as a vehicle for the enforcement of human rights)
7. Karen McAuliffe, Translating Ambiguity, Journal of Comparative Law Volume 9 No.2(2014) (showing how language plays a significant role in the reasoning used by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has impacted the development of EU law)

In the News

1. France could loosen its ban on gay men giving blood after the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of adopting less restrictive measures.
2. Political parties of Thailand banned from debating the nation’s draft Constitution.
3. Honduras is facing a constitutional crisis after the Supreme Court repealed two articles of the Constitution which banned Presidential re-election.
4. Sierra Leone urges it political parties include in their Constitution a gender policy that will allow women to be involved in the decision making process of their parties.
5. Non-contentious clauses in the draft Constitution of Zambia will be tabled before the Parliament for inclusion in the current Constitution in June.

Calls for Papers

1. The Graduate School of Government and European Studies is organising a Workshop on “The Concept and Conceptions of Transnational and Global Law”. The Workshop will be held on June 18^th, 2015 at Lecture Room P4, Graduate School of Government and European Studies Cankarjevo nabrežje 11, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Interested participants must register before June 10^th, 2015.
2. The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs is currently seeking articles for publication in 2016 in a special issue on Free Speech in the Commonwealth. Articles of 4,000 words should be submitted by late 2015. For further details, contact noel.cox34@gmail.com.
3. The Harvard – US India Initiative is soliciting essays for its Essay Competition. Interested participants may submit their essays by December 15^th 2015. For further details, see the notification here.
4. The Graduate Institute’s International Law Department is hosting an International Conference on “International Law and Time” on June 12th, 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland. Interested participants may register for the conference by submitting the form given here.
5. Turgut Ozal University School of Law and the Association for Canadian Studies are inviting scholars and policy-makers to submit paper proposals for the International Conference on International Law and Domestic Policies. The Conference will take place on 30-31 October 2015 in Ankara, Turkey.

Elsewhere on the Internet

1. Camila Gianella-Malca and Bruce Wilson, Rainbow revolution in Latin America: The battle for recognition, Centre on Law & Social Transformation
2. Matej Avbelj, Slovenia constitutionally reloaded, but still failing, Verfassungsblog
3. Songkran Grachangnetara, Democracy must be built on mistrust of good people, Bangkok Post
4. Adam Liptak and Alicia Parlapiano, Major Supreme Court Cases in 2015, The New York Times
5. Dylan Loh Ming Hui, Hong Kong Election Reform: Will It Happen? – Analysis, Eurasia Review