What’s New in Public Law

---

–Angélique Devaux, Cheuvreux Notaires, Paris, France, Diplômée notaire, LL.M. Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

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 Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled against historical inequalities in land ownership.
2. The Constitutional Court of South Africa upheld the prohibition of interim orders in divorce cases.
3. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany upheld rent control regulations.
4. The Supreme Court of Hawaii ruled in favor of the Hawaiian language at school.
5. South Africa’s Equality Court ruled that display of the apartheid-era flag constitutes hate speech.

In the News

1. Portugal debates transgender rules at school.
2. The Supreme Court of Utah rejected a citizen’s petition for medical marijuana.
3. A federal judge in Kansas found unconstitutional a law making it a crime to encourage immigrants to enter or live illegally in the country.
4. The Supreme Court of India will examine if the practice of divorce through triple talaq is constitutional.
5. The Italian Government seeks to form a new coalition.

New Scholarship

1. Ran Hirschl and Ayelet Shachar, Spatial Statism, International Journal of Constitutional Law 17 (2019) (considering how space, place and density impact the conceptualization and utilization of state power in a world of growing complexity and interdependence)
2. Roger Masterman and Robert Schütze, The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law (Cambridge University Press 2019) (presenting readers with a succinct yet wide-ranging companion to a modern comparative constitutional law course, offering a wide-ranging yet concise introduction to the subject)
3. Christoph Bezemek, Insult of Public Officials: A Free Speech Perspective, in Frederic Schauer and Adrienne Stone (eds), Oxford Handbook on Freedom of Speech (forthcoming 2019) (analysing free speech from the perspective of the First Amendment of the US Constitution and international human rights law)
4. Terry Skolnik, Homelessness and Unconstitutional Discrimination, Journal of Law and Equality (2019) (discussing homelessness as a plausible ground of discrimination)
5. Sushmita Patel and Arum PS, Democratising Lawmaking: The Tale of Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy (2019) (tracing the implementation of Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy since 2014, through RTIs and analysing of bills formulated since the policy came into force)

Calls for Papers and announcements

1. The Review of Constitutional Studies invites submissions in English and French for its issues 24 and 25. The deadline for submitting a manuscript for issue 24(2) is November 1, 2019. Submissions for issue 25(1) will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
2. The Admin Law Blog calls for submissions to the blog.
3. UCL Laws and Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome organize a conference on “The Rise of Constitutional Identity Review in Europe: A Critical Assessment,” to be held on September 12-13, 2019.
4. King’s College London invites submissions for a workshop on “Bringing the Human problem back into transnational law: The example of corporate (ir)responsibility,” to be held on March 19-20, 2020. Paper proposals are due by October 1, 2019.
5. The Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and the Reves Center for International Studies host a symposium on “Rethinking Constitutions when Democracy Is under Siege: A Global Perspective,” on Friday, September 13, 2019.
6. The 26th IPSA World Congress of Political Science invites submission on “Constitutional Transitions to Democracy: Path and Legacies” for its conference to be held in Lisbon, Portugal on July 25-29, 2020.
7. The Law and Society Association calls for submissions for its annual meeting to be held in Denver, Colorado on May 28-31, 2020

Elsewhere Online

1. Richard Albert, A New Constitution for Ontario and New Hope for Doug Ford, The Toronto Star
2. Douglas Togaraseyi Mwonzora, Why Zimbabwe Should Amend the Constitution to Abolish the Death Penalty, ConstitutionNet
3. Joseph H.K. Weller, Daniel Sarmineto, Jonathan Faull, An Offer the EU and the UK cannot refuse, Verfassungsblog
4. Valentin Vandendaele, Commission v. Germany (C-377/17): DO Exceptions in Tariff Regulation Matter? European Law Blog
5. Balu Gopalakrishman Nair, Article 370: Is it a Basic Feature of the Indian Constitution?, Verfassungsblog
6. Ruthann Robson, Missouri Federal Judge Finds State Representative Violated First Amendment by Twitter Blocking, Constitutional Law Prof Blog
7. Giuseppe Resentment, Populism and Political Strategies in Italy, Verfassungsblog
8. Juliet Nyamao, The Perpetual Endeavour: Gender-Mainstreaming and Sustainable Development in Kenya, AfricLaw
9. Ming-Sung Kuo, Living in the Shadow of Flawed Peace: How General International Law is Implicated in the Trade War between Japan and South Korea, EJIL: Talk!