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. Russia’s Constitutional Court rules that the decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights should be upheld only when they do not contradict basic Russian law.
2. Turkey’s Constitutional Court rejects individual complaint filed by jailed journalist.
3. In United States, the South Dakota Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s presumptive probation law.
4. Turkey’s Constitutional Court annuls legislation that would have closed down private schools linked to a movement led by a United States-based Muslim cleric.
5. The United Kingdom High Court struck down British data retention law while offered the government nine months to redraft it.

In the News

1. The Greek Parliament approves an austerity bill demanded by bailout creditors.
2. Japan’s lower house of Parliament approves a highly controversial military bill.
3. The EuropeanParliament’s Civil Liberties Commission passed the Passenger Name Record (PNR) system which requires a blanket collection of airline passenger data.
4. Thailand passed a new law forbidding unsanctioned protests that strictly requires protest organizers to seek official permission at least 24 hours before holding a rally.
5. The United States Senate passes revision to the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act.
6. The United States House of Representatives passes legislation to stem California drought.
7. Ukraine’s Parliament grants preliminary approval to a bill that might allow regions to self-rule.

New Scholarship

1. Yen-Tu Su, Han-Wei Ho, The Causes of Rising Opinion Dissensus on Taiwan’s Constitutional Court, Law & Courts eJournal, Vol. 9, No. 81: July 2015 (examining what drives the Justices of Taiwan’s Constitutional Court to write separately in recent times)
2. Rhea Molato, Public Debt and the Threat of Secession, Working Paper of the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance No. 2015-4 (examining public debt as a strategic instrument to prevent secession; showing that debt can be used to preempt a country’s separation if the seceding region’s potential gain from independence is strictly decreasing in debt)
3. Olga Frishman, Should Courts Fear Transnational Engagement?, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Forthcoming (arguing that the danger of judicial citation of foreign law does not come from citing or looking at foreign law, but rather, from other types of interaction, such as meetings at judicial organizations, judicial delegations, or judicial conferences)
4. Thiago Amparo, Notes on Countermovements and Conservative Lawyering: The Bumpy Road to Constitutional Marriage Equality in Brazil, FGV Direito SP Research Paper Series No. 124 (reconstructing the road to same-sex marriage equality in Brazil through the lens of countermovements and the conservative lawyers representing them; highlighting the importance of combining both interpretative syncretism in the Brazilian apex court and the inertia of political branches in protecting sexual minorities during the academic analysis and legal research)
5. Michal Bobek, Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Values in the Old and the New Europe, Forthcoming in S Douglas-Scott and N Hatzis (eds.), Edward Elgar Research Handbook on EU Human Rights Law (demonstrating that there are discernible value differences between the ‘new’ EU Member States and the ‘old’ Member States in regards to how historically formed values and convictions become translated into human rights and constitutional protection)
6. Margaret F. Brinig, Two Treatments of Pluralism: Canada and the United States, Notre Dame Legal Studies Paper No. 1517 (considering the effects of the differing policies on young people in two minority groups, the Québécois in Canada and African Americans in the United States, and explaining why the two groups diverge in terms of the mental health of their youth and in terms of the rate at which they commit suicide)

Calls for Papers 

1. The New Zealand Centre for Public Law at Victoria University of Wellington, Faculty Law, Boston College Law School, and The International Society of Public Law (ICON·S) invite submissions for a two-day symposium on quasi-constitutionality and constitutional statutes, to be held on the Pipitea campus of Victoria University of Wellington, Faculty of Law (Old Government Buildings) on Thursday & Friday, May 19-20, 2016.
2. Kabarak University School of Law, Boston College Law School and the International Society of Public Law invite submissions for a two-day Symposium on Constitutional Change and Transformation in Africa, to be held on the campus of Kabarak University in Nakuru on Thursday and Friday, June 9-10, 2016.
3. The Business and Human Rights Journal (BHRJ) has issued a call for papers for its next issue.
4. The AALS Sections on Business Associations and Law & Economics has issued a Call for Papers for a joint program on “The Corporate Law and Economics Revolution 40 Years Later,” to be held on January 8, 2016 in New York City.
5. The AALS Section on Disability Law has issued a call for papers and presentations for a meeting on “The Wounded Warrior Comes Home,” to be held on January 6-10, 2016 in New York City.
6. The AALS Section on Securities Regulation has issued a call for papers for a program on “The Future of Securities Regulation: Innovation, Regulation and Enforcement,” to be held on January 6-10, 2016 in New York City.
7. Campbell University School of Law has issued a call for papers for its 2015 Law Review Symposium on “The Evolving Impact of Investment Crowdfunding on Modern Legal Markets,” to be held on November 1, 2015 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Jennifer Zhang, China to Codify Internet Control Measures, The Diplomat
2. Susan Page, A GOP and Democratic senator: This is how a bill used to become law, USA Today
3. Jeet H. Shroff and Neeli Shah, Modi’s Marbury Moment, Foreign Policy
4. Dan Harris, Getting Money Out Of China: An Update, China Law Blog
5. Jacob Gershman, 5 Things About Police-Misconduct Payouts, The Wall Street Journal
6. James B. Stewart, Convictions Prove Elusive in ‘London Whale’ Trading Case, The New York Times
7. Jurgen Goossens and Pieter Cannoot, Monthly Overview – June 2015, BelCon Law Blog
8. Marta Requejo, Parallel Proceedings and Contradictory Decisions in International Arbitration, Conflict of Laws.net