What’s New in Public Law

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—Bárbara da Rosa Lazarotto, Master Student at the University of Minho – Portugal; Researcher at the International Legal Research Group on Human Rights and Technology of the European Law Students Association – ELSA, Legal and Compliance Lead at Women4Cyber Portugal Chapter.

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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 Czech Constitutional Court rules against same-sex married couples in an ongoing adoption battle.
2. The Constitutional Court of Slovakia suspended a government order that extended favourable treatment of fully vaccinated citizens when passing the border to people with just a first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine because the latter are not fully immunized.
3. The Constitutional Court of São Tomé and Príncipe ordered a recount of votes in the presidential election following protests raised by many candidates.
4. The Supreme People’s Court of China issued an interpretation on how businesses in China can use facial recognition technology. The Court prohibited businesses from forcing people to accept facial recognition applications to access services since it could infringe their rights.
5. The Constitutional Court of Germany considers whether government users of Zero-Day surveillance malware have a duty to tell software developers about the flaws.

In the News

1. Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed the country’s PM and suspended the Parliament for 30 days. Under Tunisia’s 2014 Constitution, executive power is shared by the head of state, Prime Minister and the Parliament.
2. After receiving the green light from its Constitutional Court, the French Parliament has approved a bill that makes COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for health workers.
3. Thousands of Polish judges have signed an appeal urging the state and justice to accept the European Union’s rulings following the escalation of facts regarding the disciplinary measures against polish judges, which contravene EU law.
4. The Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa sent the newly approved Portuguese Charter of Digital Rights to an analysis of the Constitutional Court following the questionings regarding the constitutionality of article 6.º that aims to curb disinformation.
5. Following the revelation of the use and abuse of the spy software Pegasus, the opposition in Hungary calls for the resignation of the Minister of Justice over allegations that Viktor Orbán’s government has been targeting journalists.
6. Poland’s justice minister has asked its Constitutional Court to examine whether the EU Convention on Human Rights breaches the Polish Constitution.
7. The Spanish Data Protection Agency fined the supermarket company Mercadona 2.5 million euros for unlawfully using facial recognition technology in some of their stores, violating the right of privacy of customers.

New Scholarship

1. Nuno Garoupa, Rebecca D. Gill, and Lydia B. Tiede (eds) High Courts in Global Perspective (providing a comparative analysis of high court behavior and the scholarship needed for a deeper understanding of cross-national contexts).
2. Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Gerhard van der Schyff, Maarten Stremler, Maartje De Visser (eds), European Yearbook of Constitutional Law (2021) (examining the position and powers of cities in the contemporary constitutional context, covering a broad range of constitutional systems).
3. Antal Berkes, International Human Rights Law Beyond State Territorial Control, (2021) (examining the possibility of applying and enforcing international human rights law in a part of a State territory outside its effective control).
4. Tom Ginsburg, The Future of Liberal Democracy in the International Legal Order: Is the International Legal Order Unraveling? (2021) (speculating on alternative scenarios and what they might mean for the persistence of liberal democracy as a going concern, through the lens of international law).
5. Hiromi Sato, Multilayered Structures of International Criminal Law (2022) (presenting a comprehensive analysis of the regulation of crimes under international law).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The AALS Section on Comparative Law invites submissions for a works-in-progress panel at the January 2022 Annual Meeting on any subject related to Comparative Law. Papers must be no longer than 25,000 words (including footnotes) and include an abstract. Drafts must be submitted by midnight (EST) on August 31, 2021, to Erin Delaney (erin.delaney@law.northwestern.edu).
2. The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, the University of Oxford Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law, the Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong Asian Law Centre, and Melbourne Law School extended the deadline for submissions for a workshop on  “Issues in Public Law in South Asia”. The deadline is 20th August more information can be found here.
3. The Research Committee on Sociology of Law (RCSL) will hold this year’s Conference virtually. Interested parties who want to participate in the Working Group Meeting or want to make an active contribution, please contact Stefan Machura (s.machura@bangor.ac.uk) by August 1, 2021. Individual contributions, panels or round tables can be proposed.
4. The Journal Law, Technology and Humans accepts papers for volume 3(2), to be published in November 2021. The deadline for submission is August 9, 2021.
5. The Cumberland Law Review extends its call for papers for Issue 2 of Volume 52 to be published 2021-2022 academic year. The deadline is Monday, August 2, 2021.
6. The Institutum Iurisprudentiae Academia Sinica (IIAS) invites submissions for the 9th Asian Constitutional Law Forum on “Asian Constitutionalism in Troubled Times,” the deadline for submission is November 1, 2021.
7. The Maynooth University Law Department and the Centre for International Studies invite submissions for a conference on the “United Nations War Crimes Commission.” The deadline for submission is September 10, 2021.
8. The Yale Journal of International Law has an open call for papers for the Volume 47 Symposium on “Managing Mixed Migration,” The submission deadline is August 31, 2021.
9. The European Public Law Organization accepts applications for the 2021 study session that will be held online due to the conditions imposed by the COVID-19 crisis. The session will take place from August 23 to September 11, 2021.

Elsewhere Online

1. Claudia Flores and Tom Ginsburg at the University of Chicago have launched a podcast called Entitled “A Podcast about Why Rights Matter and What’s the Matter with Rights”. The first two episodes are now up on Apple Podcasts, the podcast can also be accessed on its https://entitled.simplecast.com/ webpage or any other major podcasting platforms. The remaining episodes in this first season will be released every two weeks.
2. The symposium on the book “Reframing Human Rights in a Turbulent Era” by Gráinne de Búrcahas been published by Brazilian International Law Association. The symposium includes submission in Portuguese and English from Fernanda Frizzo Bragato (prt), Juliana Cesario Alvim Gomes (prt/en), Mukami Wangai (en), and Gráinne de Búrca (en).
3. Nicholas Kilford, The Supremacy of Retained EU Law: “We are lost, but we’re making good time!”, UK Constitutional Law Association Blog.
4. Céline Romainville and Karel Reybrouck, Le débat sur la hiérarchie fédérale en Belgique. Nécessaire en temps de crise et en temps ordinaire?, Leuven Blog for Public Law.
5. The IACL/AIDC Research Group on Public Law Responses to Public Health Emergencies has opened calls for new members.