What’s New in Comparative Public Law

–Angelique Devaux, French Licensed Attorney (Notaire)

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. A Czech court has ruled that an Iranian national can be extradited to face trial in the United States.
2. The Turkish Constitutional Court has ruled that the personal freedoms and security of a former army chief were violated.
3. A US federal judge ruled in favor of Chevron Corp., declaring that the $9.5 billion environmental judgment in Ecuador against the oil giant was “obtained by corrupt means.”
4. The Hungarian Constitutional Court has struck down a provision of the new civil code that would restrict criticism of public figures because it violates the rights to freedom of speech and a free press.
5. An Omani court sentences a former executive for 15 years and a fine of 1.7 million Omani rials for bribery.
6. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that a Tampa immigrant cannot be admitted to the Florida Bar.

In the news

1. Algerian President Bouteflika has officially registered his candidacy for April’s presidential election.
2. Costa Rican presidential candidate Johnny Araya abandoned his campaign for April’s run-off election.
3. Vatican official takes a position against Uganda’s anti-gay law.
4. Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice calls for Constitutional Amendment to prevent partisan Gerrymandering.
5. China legislature announced measures that would subject fewer crimes to capital punishment if passed.
6. Indiana measure would ban same-sex marriage tax benefits.

New scholarship

1. Mohamed Arafa, Egypt between Fear and Reform in its Second Revolution: The Failure to Protect the Fundamental Human Rights Over and Over Again, 7 Phoenix Law Review 1 (2013) (analyzing the contradictions in the amended Egyptian Constitution of 2012 that provides no guarantees of human rights and concluding that the new Constitution opened the door to a religious theocratic state rather than turning in the right direction after the June 30, 2013, revolution).
2. Andrew M. Borene, Alice Beauheim Borene, Mickael Sullivan, International Humanitarian Law Sourcebook Law of Armed Conflict (ABA publishing, February 2014) (compilation of the major source documents of International Humanitarian Law)
3. Jocco Bonhoff, The Constitution of the conflict of laws, (LSE Legal studies working paper No 4/2014 on SSRN) (examining the idea of the conflict of laws as an independent source of constitutionalist normativity, rather than as a mere passive receptacle for constraints imposed by classical, liberal, constitutional law;  and the possibility of a local, ‘outward-looking’ form of conflicts constitutionalism to complement more familiar, inwardly focused, federalist conceptions)
4. Franco Sassi, Annalisa Belloni, Chiara Capobianco, Alberto Alemanno, Taxation and Economic Incentives on Health-Related Commodities : Alcohol, Tobacco and Food, (Alberto Alemanno and Amandine Garde, Regulating Lifestyle – Europe, Alcohol, Tobacco and Unhealthy Diets, Cambridge University Press, 2014.)(This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the economic, legal and public policy rationales for the application of taxes and other fiscal measures on health-related commodities.)
5. Ronan McCrea, European Law and the Prohibition of the Veil, (working paper series posted on ssrn) (showing that European commitments to free speech and freedom of religion cannot accommodate an absolute ban justified solely on grounds of the offensiveness of the veil. The paper showed that in the context of social life some exceptions allowing the veil to be worn in specific religious or expressive contexts, may be compatible with European legal norms despite the significant infringement of personal autonomy it would involve)

Elsewhere on blogs

1. Payton M. Craighill and Scott Clement, Support for same-sex marriage hits new high, half say Constitution guarantees right, The Washington Post
2. Serkan Demirtas, Venice Commission urges Turkish Constitutional Court to annul judiciary bill, Hurriyet Daily News
3. Jacques Attali, Dangerous Game, The World Post
4. Adam Taylor, Crimea is not Scotland, The Washington Post
5. John Frazer, Gun Owners’ Victory on Retail Sales Ban Leaves Questions Unanswered , Jurist legal news and research
6. Judith E. Koons, Florida’s Case for Marriage Equality: The Significance of the Right to Marry , Jurist legal news and research

Call for papers

1. Harvard / Stanford/ Yale law Schools announced a call for papers for the 5th session of the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum to be held at Stanford Law School on June 27-28, 2014.
2. Faculty of Law and Political Science of Aix-Marseille (France) issues a call for papers for its comparative law conference to be held July 17^th to 19^th (deadline extended to March 15^th)
3. The University of Missouri School of Law has issued a call for proposals for an upcoming works-in-progress conference as well as a call for papers for a student competition to be held October 9-10, 2014
4. The Global Legal Studies Center & South Asia Legal Studies Working Group calls for proposals  for the South Asia Legal Studies Pre-Conference Workshop, scheduled for October 16, 2014 in Madison, Wisconsin.
5. The International Conference on Sustainable Development 2014 Canada will be held on August 7-8, 2014. The call for papers is here.