What’s New in Public Law

—Sandeep Suresh, Faculty Member (Jindal Global Law School)

In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in 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 public law blogosphere.

To submit relevant developments for our weekly feature on “What’s New in Public Law,” please email contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The South Korean Constitutional Court ruled that the State must allow conscientious objectors who refuse compulsory military service to perform alternate civilian service.
2. The US Supreme Court upheld Donald Trump’s infamous “travel ban”.
3. The US Supreme Court ruled that government workers who are not members of a labor union cannot be forced to pay any union fees.
4. The US Supreme Court struck down a California law that forced anti-abortion clinics to provide information to women about abortion services provided by the State at low cost.
5. The Indonesian Constitutional Court struck down several controversial provisions of a law that gave members of the House of Representatives wide immunity from criminal investigation and public criticism.

In the News

1. Czech Republic looks set to legalize same-sex marriage after the national government gave its backing for a bill in that regard.
2. France will amend its Constitution as MPs agree to incorporate a specific ban on gender discrimination and in that process, remove the word ‘race’ from the text.
3. Ukraine’s President asserted that he will introduce constitutional amendments that would direct the country’s path towards integration with the European Union.
4. Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire from the US Supreme Court on July 31, 2018.
5. California passed a strict online data privacy law that imposes several obligations and restrictions on social media companies.

New Scholarship

1. Armin von Bogdandy, Piotr Bogdanowicz, Iris Canor, Maciej Taborowski and Matthias Schmidt, A Constitutional Moment for the European Rule of Law – Upcoming Landmark Decisions Concerning the Polish Judiciary, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law Research Paper No. 2018-10 (June 2018) (examining two upcoming cases at the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning Poland’s controversial laws affecting the judiciary and their probable impact upon the rule of law in the European Union).
2. Bret Boyce, Obscenity and Nationalism: Constitutional Freedom of Sexual Expression in Comparative Perspective, 56 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 681 (2018) (surveying the progress of constitutional obscenity jurisprudence in America, Canada, India, and Japan).
3. Laura Dolbow, Agency Adherence to Legislative History, Administrative Law Review (Forthcoming 2018) (exploring how agencies in America use legislative history as an interpretive tool to implement directives contained in statutory text and how they respond to directives contained in the legislative history itself).
4. Jill I. Goldenziel, Checking Rights at the Border: Detention of Migrants in International and Comparative Law, Virginia Journal of International Law (2018) (comparing cases involving detention of migrants in the America, Australia, and Europe to determine how states can legally comply with human rights norms while preserving their right to protect their borders).
5. John O. McGinnis, Michael B. Rappaport, Ilya Shapiro, Kevin C. Walsh and Ilan Wurman, The Legal Turn in Originalism: A Discussion, San Diego Legal Studies Paper No. 18-350 (June 2018) (containing five essays which critically discuss the changes taking place in the scholarship on Originalism).

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Emory International Law Review, is currently inviting submissions for the journal’s Special Content Section of the 33^rd Submissions are evaluated on a rolling basis that favors early submissions. Interested authors must send their manuscripts to rshoot@emory.edu.
2. The Indonesian Constitutional Court’s International Symposium is scheduled for October 1-3, 2018, on the subject of “Constitutional Court and Constitutionalism in Political Dynamics. Selected articles from the Symposium (based on peer review decision) will appear in the special issue of the Court’s academic publication, Constitutional Review Journal, published by the Center for Research and Case Analysis in the Indonesian Constitutional Court. All submissions, with CV attachment, must be sent by July 31, 2018. Successful applicants will be notified by August 13, 2018. For further information, please visit our official website at http://iccis.mahkamahkonstitusi.go.id.
3. The ‘2^nd Annual Equality Law Scholars Forum’ for junior scholars will be held at the UC Davis Law School on November 9-10, 2018. The organizers will pay for transportation and accommodation expenses of the participants. Interested scholars must submit abstracts of proposed papers by July 1, 2018 to Prof. Tristin Green at tgreen4@usfca.edu.
4. The Network for Public Health Law and the American Society for Law, Medicine & Ethics will organize the 2018 Public Health Law Conference ‘Health Justice: Empowering Public Health and Advancing Heath Equity’ on October 4-6, 2018. To register for the conference, kindly visit the conference website.
5. The Arab Association of Constitutional Law is inviting applications for the post of recruiting an Executive Director. Interested candidates should consider the Terms of Reference and send their CV and a cover letter to myriam.turki@dustour.org and salhi@dustour.org by July 9, 2018.

Elsewhere Online

1. Gábor Halmai, Fidesz and Faith: Ethno-Nationalism in Hungary, Verfassungsblog
2. Tom Hickey, The Republican Core of the Case for Judicial Review, UK Constitutional Law Association
3. Mark Elliot, The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, Public Law for Everyone
4. Udit Bhatia, The Absence of Deliberative Democracy – The Fetters of the Anti-Defection Law, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
5. Shireen Morris, Why the Uluru Statement’s call for a voice fits with Australia’s constitutional culture and design, IACL-AIDC Blog
6. Sudhir Krishnaswamy et al., Rights in Review 2017 (documentation of how the Supreme Court of India decided rights cases in 2017), Centre for Law and Policy Research
7. M Ziauddin, Constitution and the country, The Express Tribune