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. The Indian Supreme Court stayed the Rajasthan High Court judgment deeming a ritual of fasting unto death observed by followers of Jain religion as illegal.
2. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Ecuadorian villagers can proceed with a $10 billion claim against Chevron.
3. The “woman in red,” an academic made famous in connection with a demonstration in Gezi Park in 2013, has filed a rights violation claim with the Turkish Constitutional Court.
4. Retired South African Constitutional Court judge Thembile Skweyiya passed away last week.
5. The Delhi High Court ruled that women must be given full term service in the Indian Navy and equal retirement benefits as men.
6. The Tripura High Court ruled that if there are no eligible candidates from the reserved category, vacancies must be filled on the basis of merit.

In the News

1. Iraqi Prime Minister proposes curbing privileges of government officials in top posts after public protests against poor governance and corruption.
2. The Law Commission of India published its 262^nd Report recommending death penalty to be abolished except in terror cases.
3. China amends its criminal law to abolish death penalty for 9 crimes.
4. Central African Republic adopts two-term limit for future presidents to end sectarian violence.
5. Final draft of the Nepalese Constitution has been tabled before the Constituent Assembly for deliberations.

New Scholarship

1. Michael Crommelin, Powers of the Head of State, Melbourne University Law Review, Vol. 38, No. 3, 2015 (discussing problems relating to the proposed law that intends to alter the Australian Constitution to establish the Commonwealth as a Republic).
2. Keith J. Hand, An Assessment of Socialist Constitutional Supervision Models and Prospects for a Constitutional Supervision Committee in China: The Constitution as Commander?, in John Garrick and Yan Chang Bennett (eds.), China’s Socialist Rule Of Law Reforms Under Xi Jinping (Routledge, 2016, forthcoming) (discussing the issues relating to the Communist Party of China’s call for setting up constitutional supervision committee within the National People’s Congress structure to improve constitutional supervision).
3. Liav Orgad, Culture on the Defense: Global Migration and Endangered Majorities in Europe, August 20, 2015 (arguing the majority culture is no longer automatically protected by the forces of democracy).
4. Joshua Braver, Exporting Counter-Interpretation: Redeeming the U.S.Constitution in the UK, Georgetown Journal of International Law, Vol.47, No. 3, (forthcoming 2016) (arguing that the UK’s Human Rights Act lacks sociological legitimacy because political actors do not independently interpret it and this is rooted in the intermediate status of the Human Rights Act and of the New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism).
5. Belser, Baer-Fang, Massueger, Oleschak (eds.), States Falling Apart? Secessionist and Autonomy Movements in Europe (Stämpfli, Bern, 2015) (compiling papers presented at the International Conference at the University of Fribourg in 2013 on various aspects of secession, autonomy and federalism).
6. Eyal Benvenisti, Democracy Captured: The Mega-Regional Agreements and the Future of Global Public Law, GlobalTrust Working Paper Series 08/2015 (discussing the effects on democracy of the negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trans Pacific Partnership).
7. Maciej Bernatt, Transatlantic Perspective on Judicial Deference in Administrative Law, Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies Working Papers, Loyola University Chicago, August 20, 2015 (analyzing whether there are grounds for the validity of the US concept of judicial deference in administrative law, in Continental Europe).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Fondazione Marcianum is organizing the “2016 Law & Religion Moot Court Competition” from March 9^th-11^th, 2016 in Venice, The moot court competition will be conducted after the International Conference on ‘The Legitimate Scope of Religious Establishment’ which will be held from March 7^th – 9^th, 2016.
2. The Barcelona International Peace Resource along with the International IDEA, Democracy Reporting International, Interpeace, United States Institute of Peace and United Nations Department for Political Affairs, is organizing the “Constitution Building for Civil Society – Training Course” from October 12^th-16^th, 2015 in Barcelona, Spain.
3. The Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa invites researchers including graduate students at the MA/PhD levels, post-Doctoral researchers, scholars and practitioners for the ‘Visiting Scholar Fellowships – Cyber Regulatory Research’. The application deadline is September 10^th, 2015.
4. The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School is inviting papers for its ‘2016 Annual Conference on Big Data, Health Law, and Bioethics’ on May 6^th-7^th, 2016. Abstracts should be submitted before December 1^st, 2015.
5. Jindal Global Law School and iJustice – a public interest law initiative of Centre for Civil Society, are organizing an “International Conference on Law & Liberty” on September 18^th-19^th, 2015 in Sonepat, India. More information can be found here.

Elsewhere on the Internet

1. Derek O’ Brien, Magna Carta, the Right to Trial by Jury and the ‘King of Sleaze’, UK Constitutional Law Blog
2. Mohamed Abdelaal, Egypt’s Anti-Terrorism Law: A Needed Step or A Legislative Redundancy?, The Jurist
3. Mahmoud Hamad, Political rights of Women in Egypt’s Second Republic: Ambitious Aspirations and Dismal Realities, ConstitutionNet
4. Gautam Bhatia, “Essential Religious Practices” and the Rajasthan High Court’s Santhara Judgment: Tracking the History of a Phrase ,Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
5. Gabriel Armas Cardona, Emerging Voices: “Do No Harm” and The Development of General Corporate Human Rights Obligations, Opinio Juris