What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Margaret Lan Xiao, Washington University in St. Louis

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 Hong Kong, Judge Thomas Au Hing-cheung rejects bid for judicial review of political reform in Hong Kong.
2. Eight political parties submit petition to Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court urging it to speed up the revision of protest law.
3. The Hungarian Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional amendments passed by Parliament to transfer management rights for state-owned land to the National Land Management Fund.
4. In South Africa, the Constitutional Court will hear allegations of vote-rigging against the Electoral Commission.
5. In Zimbabwe, the Constitutional Court ruled it was illegal for police to indiscriminately arrest women at night.
6. The Georgian Constitutional Court ruled that the current majoritarian part of electoral system undermines equality of vote.

New Scholarship

1. Jan M. Smits, Do Small Jurisdictions Have a More Complex Law? A Numerical Experiment in Constitutional and Private, Maastricht European Private Law Institute Working Paper No. 2015/05 (investigating whether smaller jurisdictions have a more complex law than bigger jurisdictions and, if so, how this phenomenon could be properly explained)
2. Benjamin M. Chen and Zhiyu Li, Explaining Comparative Administrative Law: The Standing of Positive Political Theory, Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, Forthcoming (arguing that due to cross-cutting factors, the principal-agent framework and the political economy of delegation and supervision, while insightful, may not always prove profitable in comparative studies in administrative law)
3. Antonios E. Kouroutakis, Islamic Terrorism: The Legal Impact on the US and Europe, Boston University International Law Journal, Vol. 34, 2016 Forthcoming (examining the reaction in the US and EU to religious extremism, and also analyzing the consequences for the freedom of religion)
4. Aparna Polavarapu, Expanding Standing to Develop Democracy: Third Party Public Interest Standing as a Tool for Emerging Democracies, Yale Journal of International Law, Forthcoming (arguing for the expansion of standing doctrine to protect the democratic ideal in emerging democracies)
5. Paul Johnson, Beliefs about the European Court of Human Rights in the United Kingdom Parliament, European Public Law: National eJournal, Vol. 12, No. 37: Jun 1, 2015 (exploring how members of the UK Parliament form and sustain their beliefs about the ECtHR)

In the News

1. The Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka proposes to dissolve Parliament.
2. Irish media owner Denis O’Brien accused of trying to gag Irish parliament over business dealings.
3. Romanian Prime Minister claims that only parliament can dismiss him.
4. British Parliament approves government’s legislative programme, including a referendum on whether to leave the EU.
5. An Egyptian Criminal Court sentences 51 defendants to prison for violence during a constitutional referendum last year.
6. The Ukrainian Parliament gives consent to criminal prosecution of two MPs.
7. The North Carolina legislature passed a bill to adopt a new policy of 72-hour waiting periods for abortions.

Calls for Papers

1. The American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Section on Election Law calls for papers for its 2016 Annual Meeting to be held on January 6-10, 2016 in New York City.
2. The Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy (WJELP) calls for papers focused on ocean acidification for an Ocean Acidification Symposium to be held in November 2015 in Seattle.
3. The International Economic Law Interest Groups of the American and European Societies of International Law and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law collectively call for papers for a workshop on Transatlantic Economic Governance, to be held on Dec 11, 2015 to Dec 12, 2015 in Heidelberg, Germany.
4. St. Mary’s University calls for papers for a symposium on “First Women Lawyers in England, Wales and the Empire”, to be held on September 9, 2015 in Twickenham, UK.
5. University of Westminster calls for papers for the Conference of “Adrift in the European Crisis – Interrogating the impact of global and regional legal reforms on economic rights”, to be held on September 17, 2015 in London.
6. The Asian Journal of Comparative Politics (AJCP) calls for papers for its forthcoming special issues.
7. The Journal Quaestio Iuris has issued a call for papers for the next number of Journal Quaestio Iuris, to be published in July 2015.

Elsewhere on the Internet

1. Eugene Volokh, The Supreme Court doesn’t decide when speech becomes a constitutionally unprotected “true threat”, The Washington Post
2. John Eligon, Courts Budget Intensifies Kansas Dispute Over Powers, The New York Times
3. Jacob Gershman, Judge Designated as Official Texas ‘Tweeter Laureate’, The Wall Street Journal
4. Paul Vigna, Who Wins in a Data Breach? Cybersecurity Firms–And Their Investors, The Wall Street Journal
5. Chris Priddy, China-Korea Free Trade And What That Means For You, China Law Blog
6. Ruthann Robson, New York Court Allows Bar Admission for “Undocumented” Immigrant, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
7. Chintan Chandrachud: India’s Deceptive Constitution, UK Constitutional Law Blog
8. Verna Yu, On China’s campuses, scholars battle ideology and red tape, The Christian Science Monitor