What’s New in Public Law

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–Susan Achury, Visiting Lecturer at Texas Christian University

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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 Portugal found that the law legalizing euthanasia is inconsistent with the law’s principle of determinability.
2. The Spanish Constitutional Court recognized the use of bable language in the parliament of Asturias.
3. The Constitutional Court of Colombia decided to monitor the implementation of the protection of the access to health, drinking water, and food security of Wayuu children defined in the previous declaration of the unconstitutional state of affairs declared by the court.
4. The Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal of Bolivia declared unconstitutional the “juicio en rebeldía” established in corruption proceedings and stated no person could be tried and sentenced in absentia.
5. The U.S. Supreme Court rules the use of police force to restrain constitutes a seizure.
6. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany stops ratification of the E.U. recovery fund.
7. The Constitutional Court of Colombia orders Congress to reopen a debate of political control over the Odebrecht corruption scandal, protecting the opposition’s rights to scrutinize the government.
8. The Supreme Court of Chile ruled in favor of religious cults’ ceremonies, allowing ceremonies to occur even under quarantine.
9. The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to promote reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka.

In the News

1. U.S. President Biden condemned voting restrictions recently adopted in Georgia as a ‘blatant attack on the Constitution.’
2. The Supreme Court of California held that it is unconstitutional to require defendants to remain behind bars because they cannot afford bail.
3. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights agreed to Ethiopia’s request for a joint investigation in the Tigray region for possible war crimes.
4. New Zealand approved paid leave for workers who have experienced miscarriages.
5. The U.S. Treasury Department issued sanctions against the Myanmar military.
6. Ukraine imposed sanctions on former President Yanukovich and former PM Mykola Azarov, freezing their assets and property and stripping them of all state awards.
7. An administrative court in Mexico suspended the electricity reform of López Obrador indefinitely

New Scholarship

1. Nuno Garoupa and Catarina Santos Botelho, Measuring Procedural and Substantial AmendmentRules: An Empirical Exploration (2021) (providing an index of constitutional amendment difficulty based on both procedural and substantive rules)
2. John Laws, The Constitutional Balance (2021) (examining the role of courts in achieving constitutional balance). Discount code: UG7
3. Martin Belov (ed), The I.T. Revolution and its Impact on State, Constitutionalism and Public Law (2021) (exploring the different aspects of the impact of information and technology revolution on state, constitutionalism and public law) Discount code: UG7
4. Luís Roberto Barroso and Patrícia Perrone Campos Mello, In Defense of the Amazon Forest: The Role of Law and Courts (2021) (examining the deficient legal framework to protect the Amazon forest)
5. Amy Hemsworth, The ‘Exceptionality’ of Legal Aid: Affordable Access to Justice in Judicial Review (2021) (examining the role of costs as a limitation on access to judicial review in the U.K.)
6. Shauhin Talesh, Elizabeth Mertz and Heinz Klug (eds), Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism (2021) (analyzing the new legal realism in a comparative perspective)
7. Tiina Paloniitty and Niina Kotama, Scientific and Legal Mechanisms for Addressing Model Uncertainties: Negotiating the right balance in Finnish Judicial Review? (2021) (examining water-related cases inf Finland to explore the role of science in judicial review)
8. Nino Guruli, Pro-Constitutional Engagement: Judicial Review, Legislative Avoidance, and Institutional Interdependence in National Security (2021) (analyzing how judicial review can prompt legislation in the national security issues)
9. Benjamin Lawrence, Outlawing Opposition, Imposing Rule of Law: Authoritarian Constitutionalism in Cambodia (2021) (analyzing how authoritarian practices in Cambodia are framed in terms of adherence to the Constitution)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Erasmus School of Law, together with the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Digital Governance, invites submissions for a workshop on “A.I. and human rights: friend or foe?” The deadline for abstract is due May 15, 2021.
2. Loyola University Chicago School of Law and George Washington University Law School invites submissions for the Twelfth Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium. (Abstract due June 21, 2021)
3. The International Society of Public Law has issued a call for papers for the 2021 Annual Conference
4. The Yale Law Journal invites submissions on the Law of the Territories, covering issues arising out of and affecting the U.S. territories and their people, for a Special Issue. (Due July 15, 2021).
5. The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence invites submissions of papers addressing the rights to privacy and data protection in times of armed conflict. (Abstract due April 19, 2021).
6. The International Law Association of Australia is calling for submissions for the Brennan Essay Prize in Public International Law and the Nygh Essay Prize in Private International Law.
7. The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals invites submissions for the 2021 Rosalyn Higgins Prize. (Due June 30, 2021)
8. The European Yearbook of Constitutional Law (EYCL) invites proposals for its 2022 issue on the theme of ‘The Constitutional Identity of the European Union (Due June 1, 2021)

Elsewhere Online

1. Clara Burbano Herrera and Gustavo Prieto, The Virtues and Limits of Transformative Constitutionalism: Ecuador’s Constitutional Court Decision on Prisons, Verfassungsblog.
2. Zülfiye Yılmaz and Barış Bahçeci, Gender of the Constituent Power of the Turkish Constitution of 1921, IACL-AIDC.
3. Teresa Violante, Not Yet but Soon: The Portuguese Constitutional Court’s decision on medically assisted death, Verfassungsblog.
4. Nicole Pallotta, The Islamabad High Court Is Protecting the Legal Rights of Animals, Jurist