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. The Canadian Supreme Court refuses to hear an appeal over a pilot discrimination action.
2. The Singapore High Court holds that the practice of playing musical instruments during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam is protected by the constitutional right to freedom of religion.
3. The French Constitutional Council upholds the constitutionality of a law banning UberPop Technologies Inc. taxi drivers.
4. The Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe declares unconstitutional Section 121(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, which empowers state officials to revoke a granted bail and continue jailing suspects.
5. In South Africa, the Supreme Court of Pretoria will hear a challenge against the country’s ban on trade of rhino horn.
6. A federal judge in Pennsylvania says law enforcement cannot compel defendants to disclose a smartphone passcode because it violates the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
7. Indonesia’s Constitutional Court has ruled against a prohibition preventing criminal offenders from running for public office and revoked a provision in the Regional Elections Law that banned relatives of the incumbent from running for office in regional elections.
8. The Constitutional Court of Georgia, in the Gigi Ugulava case, ruled unconstitutional a clause of criminal procedure code allowing detention beyond the 9-month limitation if a new set of charges were filed against the same person.

In the News

1. In the United Kingdom, a Supreme Court judge urges the community not to rush gender equality talk.
2. The Arizona Supreme Court suspends one of its justices for using governmental resources in an election bid.
3. Nepal witnesses huge protests after the adoption of the country’s new Constitution.
4. In Burkina Faso, the interim president was seized by the presidential guard.
5. Justice Mandisa Muriel Maya became the first woman appointed as deputy president of the Supreme Court of Appeal.
6. Protests ensued in the streets of Congo against constitutional changes that would allow President Denis Sassou Nguesso to run for another term in elections next year.
7. Pro-independence parties won a majority of seats in Catalonia’s parliament in a regional election and now claim mandate to break with Spain.

New Scholarship

1. Mark S. Kende, Comparative Constitutional Law South African Cases and Materials in a Global Context, (Carolina Academic Press, 2015) (discussing modern South African constitutionalism from a comparative approach).
2. Surabhi Chopra, National Security Laws in India: The Unraveling of Constitutional Constraints, 17(1) Oregon Rev. of Int’l L. (2015) (providing an analysis of how legislative and judicial retreat have resulted in overweening national security powers being vested in the executive branch in India).
3. Ganesh Sitaraman, The Puzzling Absence of Economic Power in Constitutional Theory, Cornell L. Rev., forthcoming (discussing the role of the dominant economic elites in politics as well as the major failure of leading debates in constitutional theory to engage with the reality of these elites).
4. Keith J. Hand, An Assessment of Socialist Constitutional Supervision Models and Prospects for a Constitutional Supervision Committee in China: The Constitution as Commander?, forthcoming in China’s Socialist Rule of Law Reforms Under XI Jinping, John Garrick and Yan Chang Bennett, eds., (2016) (explaining the vulnerability of an effective constitutional interpretation process as well as constitutional supremacy in China under the ruling of the Communist Party).
5. Jenia Iontcheva Turner, Plea Bargaining and Disclosure in Germany and the United States: Comparative Lessons, William & Mary L. Rev., forthcoming 2016 (examining the process of plea bargaining, disclosure of evidence, and regulating discovery in both the German and American systems).
6. Or Bassok, Interpretative Theories as Roadmaps to American Identity, Global Constitutionalism, forthcoming (arguing that different interpretative theories offer different visions of constitutional identities).

Call for Papers

1. The Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law (RGSOIPL) is now accepting submissions for the 2^nd National Colloquium on Legal Research.
2. The St Mary’s University School of Law invites submissions for a two-day International Conference on Contracts to be held in Antonio, Texas, 26-27 February 2016.
3. Nirma University’s Centre for Corporate Research Law Journal has issued a call for papers for its new volume.
4. The University of New Hampshire School of Law‘s Franklin Pierce Center for IP invites submissions for the Fifth Annual IP Scholars’ Roundtable to be held on November 6-7, 2015.
5. A call of papers has been issued for the Annual Patent Conference (PatCon 6) to be held at Boston College Law School on April 8-9, 2016.
6. The Asian Law Institute (ASLI) and the Peking University Law School have issued a call for papers for the 13th ASLI Conference in Beijing on 19th & 20th May 2016. This year’s broad theme is ‘Asian Perspectives on Legal Globalization’.
7. The Tilburg Law Review (TLR) issued a call for papers on ‘Legal Responses to Climate Change’. Submissions must be sent in by the 11th of November, 2015.
8. The University of Brasilia Law School, Boston College Law School, Macquarie Law School, and the International Society of Public Law invite submissions for a two-day Symposium on constitutional amendment and replacement in Latin America, to be held on the campus of the University of Brasilia Law School on September 29-30, 2016.
9. The Younger Comparativists Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law invites submissions for the Fifth Annual YCC Global Conference, to be held on March 18-19, 2016, at Tulane University Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana.
10. 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.
11. 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.

Elsewhere on Blogs

1. Arvind Narrain, Decoding the Politics Underlying the Resolution on Protection of the Family, Jurist
2. Jacob Gershman, GOP Debate: Where Candidates Stood on Constitutional Rights, WSJLawBlog
3. Isaam Bin Haris, Judicial Review of Constitutional Amendments – Pakistan’s Uneasy Subscription to the Basic Structure Doctrine, UK Constitutional Association
4. Should Britain abolish the monarchy?, Economist
5. Yasuo Hasebe, The End of Constitutional Pacifism in Japan?, Blog of the IACL, AIDC
6. Gábor Attila Tóth, Judging fears in Refugee Crisis, VerfassungsBlog