What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Mohamed Abdelaal, Alexandria University (Egypt)

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. Russian Constitutional Court allows early parliamentary poll.
2. The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Obama’s plan on power plant emissions.
3. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Arizona’s independent redistricting commission.
4. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the use of lethal injection is legal.
5. In Kansas, a judge orders to block the ban abortion procedure.

In the News

1. Australian Senate passes copyright piracy act.
2. Malaysian opposition calls for an emergency debate over Prime Minister’s corruption allegations.
3. In Honduras, protesters urge the President to resign over corruption allegations.
4. China and Taiwan entered into a judicial assistance agreement.
5. French Cassation Court ruled on the transcription into French birth registers of the foreign birth certification of children with one French parent.
6. Myanmar proposes constitutional amendments entrenching legislative supremacy.
7. In Alabama, probate judges started issuing licenses for same-sex marriages.
8. Tunisian President declared a state of emergency.
9. Russian Parliament votes to adopt privacy law.

New Scholarships

1. Keith J. Hand, An Assessment of Socialist Constitutional Supervision Models and Prospects for a Constitutional Supervision Committee in China: The Constitution as Commander?, forthcoming (arguing that the establishment of a constitutional supervision committee would strengthen the Communist Party of China and help promote the rule of law)
2. Kenneth Einar Himma, Why Law Can’t Claim: What Law Would Claim If it Could, (2015) (arguing that there cannot be a legal system that does not claim morally legitimate authority)
3. David Landau & Rosalind Dixon, Constraining Constitutional Change, Wake Forest Law Review, forthcoming (discussing the legal regulation of constitutional replacement with a particular focus on constitutional amendments)
4. Jide Nzelibe, The Illusion of the Free Trade Constitution, NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy forthcoming (discussing the significance of the delegation of trade authority to the President on interest groups)
5. Calvin J. TerBeek, Originalism’s Obituary, Utah Law Review (2015) (asserting that sooner or later originalism will be relegated to the dustbin along with other discarded normative theories of constitutional interpretation)

Call for Papers

1. The Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law invites submissions for Volume 18 on the theme of “Contemporary Armed Conflicts and their Implications for International Humanitarian Law.”
2. The A38 Journal of International Law is currently soliciting submissions for Volume 4, Issue 3, which will be published in October 2015.
3. The AALS Section on Family & Juvenile Law has issued a call for papers for a panel to be held at the AALS Annual Meeting on January 6, 2016 in New York.
4. The American Indian Law Journal, published by the Seattle University School of Law, is currently accepting submissions for publication in the fall 2015 issue.
5. A call for papers has been issued for a panel on legal history at the International Congress on Medieval Studies on May 12-15, 2016 at Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Daniel Marari, Consolidating Democracy in Tanzania: Presidential Powers under the Proposed Constitution, ConstitutionNet
2. Katrien Bernard et al., We the People: More Direct Democracy after the Sixth State Reform?, BelConLawBlog
3. Diego Antonino Cimino, Italy Towards Institutional Re-Design: A Constitutional and Political Marathon, ConstitutionNet
4. Emre Kizilkaya, Turkey’s Top Court is Now More Liberal than US Supreme Court, DailyNews
5. Dylan Stableford, Supreme Court justice wonders whether death penalty violates Constitution, YahooPolitics
6. Joe Palazzolo, Gay Marriage Ruling: What’s Next?, WSJ Law Blog