What’s New in Public Law

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—Eman Muhammad Rashwan, Ph.D. Candidate in the European Doctorate in Law & Economics (EDLE), Hamburg University, Germany; Assistant Lecturer of Public Law, Cairo University, Egypt.

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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 contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider Texas’ challenge to California’s ban on state-funded business trips to Texas and other states deemed to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
2. The Indian Supreme Court directed the state governments of Gujarat and Rajasthan to lay all low voltage power lines underground in the Great Indian Bustard’s (GIB) preferred and potential habitats as identified by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) a few days earlier to the court judgment.
3. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 opinion in Niz-Chavez v. Garland, reversing a lower court’s decision that had limited access to “cancellation of removal,” an important form of relief for non-citizens deportation proceedings.
4. The Supreme Court of India dismissed with costs a plea by a commerce graduate seeking directions for tests and treatments to be conducted to treat COVID-19. The Court pulled up the petitioner for filing a petition without any knowledge on the subject.

In the News

1. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said it ordered Twitter, Facebook, and others to take down roughly 100 social media posts. Amnesty International described the order as a blockage for criticism of COVID response, undermining Indian citizens’ freedom of expression and the right to receive and impart information without interference.
2. The Egyptian Parliament agreed with the majority on a bill that increases the criminal sanction on female mutilation to 7 years of imprisonment and can reach 20 years in some cases.
3. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution observes people and groups of the “Querdenken” movement, which translates to “lateral thinking.” The office classifies the group nationwide as “collective observation objects” because of being “Democracy-hostile and/or security-endangering delegitimization of the state,” for their agenda that “goes beyond mere mobilization to protests against the state’s corona protective measures.”
4. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights addressed a warning notice to the interior minister requesting him to urgently enable the prisoners to register for the COVID-19 vaccination in a preparatory step to file a case in this regard.
5. Over a decade after it ruled that the Second Amendment protects the right to have a handgun in the home for self-defense, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether the Constitution also protects the right to carry a gun outside the home.
6. The constitutional conflict in Tunisia between the President, the Prime Minister, and the Parliament mounts as the President says that his constitutional powers as commander of the armed forces include the internal security forces.

 New Scholarship

1. Marek Zubik, Jan Podkowik, Robert Rybski (eds.), European Constitutional Courts towards Data Retention Laws, Part of the “Law, Governance and Technology Series book series,” Springer Link, LGTS, volume 45 (2021) (analyzing the impact the jurisprudence of the constitutional courts of the E.U. Member States and the Court of Justice of the European Union has had on the perception of freedom of communications in the digital era concerning these courts’ judgments regarding regulating storage and access to telecommunications data from 2008 to 2017)
2. Conor Casey and David Kenny, The Gatekeepers: Executive Lawyers And The Executive Power In Comparative Constitutional Law, International Journal of Constitutional Law (Forthcoming 2022) (compare the practice of the executive legal advisors in four similar but somewhat distinct jurisdictions – the UK, Canada, the U.S., and Ireland – to assess its impact on constitutionalism and the executive power)
3. Vanessa A. Boese, Amanda B. Edgell, Sebastian Hellmeierhttps, Seraphine F. Maerz, and Staffan I. Lindberghttps, How democracies prevail: democratic resilience as a two-stage process, DEMOCRATIZATION (Forthcoming, 2021) (introducing a novel conceptualization of democratic resilience – a two-stage process where democracies avoid democratic declines altogether or avert democratic breakdown given that such autocratization is ongoing)
4. Mark Fenster Transparency and The First, 14 FIU L. Rev. 713 (Forthcoming, 2021) (offering friendly amendments regarding the distinction between public and private speech in the US., the statutory rights to information available under the federal Freedom of Information Act and other laws, and how the Trump presidency confounded everyone’s understanding of what transparency might mean)
5. Phil Lord, Religious Legitimacy, 90 UMKC L. Rev. (Forthcoming, 2021) (demonstrating both the importance of expertise and scholarship in framing a religion’s claim of legitimacy in law and how a religious group can harness expertise to gain this legitimacy)
6. John Nkeobuna Nnah Ugoani, Good Local Government Management and Rural Development in Nigeria, American Journal of Social Science Research, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2021) (recommending that local government management in Nigeria should be guided by the provisions of the 1976 local government reforms and the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, based on an exploratory research design results)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. De Haagse Hogeschool / The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Hague, Netherlands, is looking for a Lecturer of E.U. Law. The deadline for applications is 16 May 2021.
2. The World Food Programme (WFP) seeks candidates to join its Legal Office (LEG) of the WFP’s headquarters in Rome, Italy as a Legal Consultant – Contractual and Constitutional Law Branch (LEGC). The deadline for applications is 17 May 2021.
3. The INTER PARES | Parliaments in Partnership – E.U. Global Project to Strengthen the Capacity of Parliaments invites all to the first-of-its-kind Global Virtual Conference ‘Catalysing Parliamentary Action to Fight Climate Change’, taking place on 11-12 May 2021.
4. The University of Gothenburg is hiring an Associate Senior Lecturer at the V-Dem Institute and the Department of Political Science. Deadline: 10 May 2021. More info and apply here.
5. Democracy Reporting International (DRI) is organizing an online event to mark the launch of their new report evaluating the pandemic response that has affected the rule of law across the E.U. under the title “Extraordinary or extralegal responses? The rule of law and the COVID-19 crisis,” on 5 May 2021. Registration is open here.
6. The yearly ‘Federal Scholar in Residence Programme’ welcomes both academics and practitioners to apply to the program at the Institute for Comparative Federalism at Eurac Research, located in Bolzano, South Tyrol (Northern Italy). The winner of each year’s program is granted a research residency of up to 3 weeks at the research center. Expenses for travel and accommodation are covered. The deadline for applications is 1 July 2021.
7. Maynooth University National University of Ireland Maynooth – Department of Law is seeking excellent academics to join their staff as Assistant Professors / Lecturers in Law, with a particular interest in Public Law (including, but not limited to, comparative constitutional law).
8. The Washington College of Law at American University has opened registration for its summer course on Comparative Public Law in the Program on Law & Government.

Elsewhere Online

1. Dinesha Samararante, The Port City Bill: Legislative Carving Out from a Constitutional Democracy?, GROUNDVIEWS
2. Amy Howe, Justices ponder narrow ruling in student speech case, SCOTUSblog
3. Michael Keating, The sovereignty conundrum and the uncertain future of the Union, The Constitution Unit
4. Nika Bačić Selanec, COVID-19 and the Rule of Law in Croatia: Majoritarian or Constitutional Democracy?, Verfassungsblog
5. Linda Ajemba, Using evidence in the time of COVID-19 to reduce health inequalities for Persons with Psychosocial Disability in South Africa, AfricLaw
6. Ganeah Sahathevan, Malaysia’s Federal Court can provide The Agong a solution to His Majesty’s Emergency rule Court, but Court must be willing to justify its status as guardian of the Constitution, realpolitikasia