What’s New in Public Law

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Boldizsár Szentgáli-Tóth, Research fellow at Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies – Centre of Excellence (Budapest); Research Fellow at Eotvos Loránd University (Budapest)

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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. U.S. Supreme Court takes up FBI bid to block Muslim civil rights suit.
2. U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs challenge to all-male military draft.
3. U.S. Supreme Court held, that immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally cannot apply for green cards simply because they enjoy Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.
4. The Latvian Constitutional Court finds that the provisions of the Istanbul Convention comply with the Latvian Constitution.
5. Zimbabwe court upheld chief justice’s right to resume work despite age.           .
6. The Constitutional Court of South Korea held the opening hearing of the first ever case in the country, when a sitting judge had been impeached over abuse of judicial power.

In the News

1. Delhi court dismissed a prisoner’s request for special food, dietary supplements.
2. Washington Superior Court finds city of Seattle’s payroll expense tax on salaries constitutional.
3. The Eleventh Circuit Court ruled, that an inmate’s claim against the U.S. that his constitutional right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment was violated, when prison officials negligently placed him with a violent cellmate, is blocked by the Federal Tort Claim Act’s discretionary function exception.
4. CDU surprises pollsters, scores big win in German state election.
5. Albanian Parliament impeaches president for vote comments.
6. Japan ruling MPs seek emergency clause for constitution amid pandemic response discontent.
7. Constitutional referendum in Haiti originally scheduled on June 27 2021 has been postponed indefinitely.
8. Slovenia to hold referendum on drinking water on July 11.
9. A Libyan political leader announced his intention to block Libyan referendum since he has been excluded from presidential candidature due to his dual citizenship.
10. Mexican president may seek constitutional change in power industry.

New Scholarship

1. Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Gerhard van der Schyff, Maarten Stremler, and Maartje De Visser (eds), The City in Constitutional Law – European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 2020 (2021) (examining the positioning and powers of cities in the contemporary constitutional context)
2. Martin Belov (ed), Courts, Politics and Constitutional Law: Judicialization of Politics and Politicization of the Judiciary (2021) (examining how the judicialization of politics, and the politicization of courts, affect representative democracy, rule of law, and separation of powers)
3. Brian Christopher Jones (ed), Democracy and Rule of Law in China’s Shadow (2021) (providing detailed insight into some of the most contentious events occurring in jurisdictions operating within China’s vast shadow)
4. Ian Loveland (ed), British and Canadian Public Law in Comparative Perspective (2021) (exploring current human rights controversies arising in UK law, in the light of the way such matters have been dealt with in Canada)
5. G. Delledonne, G. Martinico, M. Monti, and F. Pacini, Italian Populism and Constitutional Law (2021) (diagnosing the relationship between constitutionalism and populism in the Italian context, featuring 15 chapters offering various perspectives on this relationship)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Minerva Law Network organizes a conference a panel session with a title “Women and the International Law Commission,” in which the current and former women of the International Law Commission will discuss their experiences in the Commission and their work on the progressive development of international law and its codification. The panel will take place online, on June 30, 2021.
2. The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford hosts a workshop on “Issues in Public Law in South Asia,” to be held on June 10-12, 2022. The deadline for submissions is July 30, 2021.
3. The South African Research Chair in International Constitutional Law in the Faculty of Law (UP Law) at the University of Pretoria (UP), Prof Dire Tladi, invites applications for full-time Research Master’s, Doctoral, Postdoctoral candidates commencing in 2022. The deadline for submission of applications is 30 June, 2021.
4. University of Oxford and Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Private International Law, with the funding of the British Academy Global Professorship and the Max Planck Institute, organize the second Decolonial Comparative Law Workshop on “Decolonial comparative legal history: indigenous and global South law prior to colonialism.” The deadline for submissions is February 9, 2022.
5. Droit Public Comparé – Comparative Public Law (DPC-CPL) invites those that are interested to submit papers to the biannual peer-reviewed journal dedicated to Comparative Public Law. Articles can be written in English or French, and will be published in spring and autumn, 2022.
6. The AACL calls for nominations for the 2021 Saunders Prize, which will be awarded to the author of an article or note on a subject of constitutional law published in an Australian legal journal in 2020. The deadline for all nominations is June 21, 2022.
7. Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law hosts the 2022 Nova Law Review Symposium on March 11, 2022. The theme of the symposium is “Under Pressure:  Legal and Systemic Responses to the Psychological Trauma Associated With COVID-19.” The deadline of submissions is July 16, 2021.
8. Indiana University McKinney School of Law and Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality (IU Maurer School of Law) organize a hybrid conference on “Law vs. Antisemitism.” to be held on March 13-14, 2022. The deadline of submissions is August 1, 2021.
9. Submissions are invited for two events on Judicial education and on Judicial conduct in Ireland in September and October 2021, with a selection of papers to be published afterwards in special editions of the Irish Judicial Studies Journal. This project is funded by the Irish Research Council and is undertaken in conjunction with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and further information and calls for papers are available here.

Elsewhere Online

1. Jennifer Selin, How the Constitution’s federalist framework is being tested by COVID-19, Brookings
2. Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Georg Restle, Kein Anspruch auf Sendezeit: Warum die Rundfunkfreiheit kein Einlassticket für rechte Parteien ist, Verfassungsblog
3. Florian Kriener, Gabriel Álvarez Argüello, Alina Maria Ripplinger, Nicaragua’s Electoral Counter-Reform, Verfassungsblog
4. Felix Ekardt, Shell’s Climate Obligation: Climate, Civil Courts, Human Rights, and Balance of Powers, Verfassungsblog
5. Jasper Mührel, Standing for Piglets: The Locus Standi of Non-Human Beings Under the German Constitution, Verfassungsblog
6. Radosveta Vassileva, Framing and Raiding: Bulgaria’s Kafkaesque Prosecutor’s Office, Verfassungsblog
7. Sven Jürgensen, Für immer dein Feind?: Über die Präzedenzwirkung im Parteiordnungsrecht, Verfassungsblog
8. Maximilian Beyer, Sangeeta Mahapatra, and Matthias C. Kettemann, Fighting Platforms and the People, not the Pandemic: #ResignModi and Disinformation Governance in India – an update, Verfassungsblog
9. Maximilian Steinbeis, After he’s gone, Verfassungsblog