What’s New in Public Law

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–Maja Sahadžić, Guest Professor and Research Fellow (University of Antwerp)

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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 iconnecteditors@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Constitutional Court of Czechia overturned a government ban on retail stores closure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. The Constitutional Court of Moldova blocked the effort of the President to force new elections.
3. The Supreme Court of Mexico will vote on gay marriage in Yucatan state.
4. The Constitutional Court of Benin validated candidacies for the presidential election.
5. The Supreme Court of the United States of America heard arguments over whether the Constitution permits police to carry out warrantless searches of people suspected of fleeing law enforcement after committing minor offenses.
6. The Constitutional Court of Slovenia upheld retirement provisions of the stimulus legislation.
7. The Supreme Court of Nepal reinstated the dissolved parliament.
8. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that Uber drivers are workers, not self-employed.

In the News

1. The government of Egypt initiated the development of automated Supreme Constitutional Court services.
2. The Portuguese President referred a law on euthanasia to the country’s Constitutional Court.
3. US lawmakers introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning the actions of China and Hong Kong local authorities as violating the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.
4. The Bulgarian president asked the Constitutional Court to overturn amendments to the rule on a special prosecutor role.
5. The government of New Zealand banned conversion therapy practices.
6. The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union called on the European Parliament to protect all life.
7. The European Parliament approved the Recovery and Resilience Facility, designed to help EU countries tackle the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Scholarship

1. Patricia Popelier, Nicholas Aroney, Giacomo Delledonne (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Subnational Constitutions and Constitutionalism (2021) (examining systems with subnational entities that have full subnational constituent autonomy and systems where subnational constituent powers, while claimed by subnational governments, are incomplete or non-existent).
2. Ajayan T, Centre-state Relations: A Kerala Experience 12(3) Perspectives on Federalism (analyzing how the ruling party at Centre and the remaining States toppled the Communist government and whether the dismissal of the ministry was constitutional).
3. Jens Woelk, Jurisdiction and Pluralisms: Judicial Functions and Organisation in Federal Systems 12(2) Perspectives on Federalism (focusing on the degree to which legal and judicial pluralism is possible within the general legal system of the State).
4. Laura Thaut Vinson and Peter Rudloff, Ethnicities and Conflict: A Survey Experiment on the Effect of Narrative Framing on Perceptions in Jos, Nigeria Ethnopolitics (focusing on where ethnic violence divides groups by both religious and tribal affiliation and how does the ‘ethnic’ characterization of conflict affect perceptions of the crises).
5. Pierre-Loup Beauregard, Alain-G. Gagnon, and Jean-Denis Garon, Managing Immigration in the Canadian Federation: The Case of Quebec (2021) (discussing constitutional foundations and the historical evolution of provincial and federal legislative powers related to immigration policies in Quebec).
6. Marta Simoncini and Giuseppe Martinico, A Knot Not to Be Cut? The Legacy of Brexit over the CJEU 9(1) Politics and Governance (discussing the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Brexit saga and the impact of Brexit over the future structure and activity of the CJEU).
7. Erika Arban, Giuseppe Martinico, and Francesco Palermo (eds.), Federalism and Constitutional Law, The Italian Contribution to Comparative Regionalism (2021) (examining the relationship between the central government and local institutions, taking Italy as a case study to present a comparative perspective).
8. Baogang He, Michael Breen, and James Fishkin (eds.), Deliberative Democracy in Asia (2021) (demonstrating and comparing the differing uses of public deliberation in Asia through the cases of India, China, Nepal, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Mongolia, and Malaysia).

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Institute for Comparative Federalism welcomes applications from scholars and practitioners for the Federal Scholar in Residence Program. The deadline for submissions is July 1 2021.
2. The Institute for Comparative Federalism accepts papers for the “Diversity Governance Papers (DiGoP) – Constitutional, Territorial and Societal Pluralism” online working paper series.
3. ECPR organizes the General Conference “Comparative Territorial Politics: Citizens, Elites, and Institutions in Multilevel States” to be held online from August 30 to September 3 2021. The deadline for roundtables proposals is March 15 2021.
4. The Faculty of Law of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University Jaume I de Castellón, the Institute of Comparative Law and Interdisciplinary Research of the University of Lodz, and the Faculty of Legal Sciences of the University of Las Palmas ULPGC organize the 11th Polish-Spanish Conference on the European Legal Tradition “Women, Society and Law: from Roman Law to Digital Age” to be held online, on April 30 2021. The deadline for submissions is March 10 2021.
5. IACL-AIDC announces the international conference “Comparative Legal Review and the Judicial Protection of Gender Equality” to be held on 4-5 March 2021.
6. The International Association of Centres for Federal Studies opened entries for Ronald L. Watts Young Researcher Award 2021. Nominations and papers are due on April 30 2021.

Elsewhere Online

1. Pelin Baysal, Beril Yayla Sapan, and Kardelen Özden, New Constitutional Court ruling on employers’ inspection of employees’ corporate emails, International Law Office
2. Salleh Buang, Should we have a constitutional court?, New Straits Times
3. Natasha Bernal, The Supreme Court owned Uber. What comes next is much worse, Wired
4. Hugo Murphy, The Weekly Round-up: Free Speech: Chilling Effects or Phantom Threats?, UK Human Rights Blog
5. George Pagoulatos and Katerina Sokou, US-Greece relations in the Biden era: Why the road to rebuilding the transatlantic alliance runs through Athens, Atlantic Council
6. Nicholas Kilford, The UK Internal Market Act’s Interaction with Senedd Competences: The Welsh Government’s Challenge, UK Constitutional Law Association Blog
7. Ennatu Domingo, Fiscal decentralization for a functional Ethiopian federation, Ethiopia Insight
8. Davide Bevacqua, Rule of law: Romania and Bulgaria’s reforms from within the Union, Eureka!
9. Thomas Perroud, A Witch Hunt In French Universities, Verfassungsblog