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. The Constitutional Tribunal of Poland postponed a planned ruling on whether the domestic Constitution takes precedence over the European Union treaties. The decision in the case could potentially upset the EU legal order.
2. The Supreme Court of India began holding physical hearings after 18 months of holding only virtual hearings due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
3. The Constitutional Court of Czechia ruled in favour of the Czech ticket seller Kiwi.com in a dispute with Ryanair over Kiwi’s practices of managing passenger data.
4. The Supreme Court of the United States refused to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
5. The Electoral Commission of South Africa requested the Constitutional Court to postpone municipal elections until February 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
6. The President of Tunisia rejected the judicial review of the extended emergency measures as well as the executive decision on the suspension of the Parliament.

In the News

1. A woman with 14 tickets won a significant decision in a dispute before a Court of Appeal over whether the city of Michigan violated the U.S. Constitution by chalking her car tires without a search warrant.
2. A federal judge found that California’s recall process is constitutional, weeks before voting in a recall election against the current governor of California is scheduled to end.
3. The eighth Regional Rule of Law Forum for South-East Europe took place on September 3-4, 2021.
4. Large anti-governmental protests took place in Slovakia on September 1, which is the day of the Constitution.
5. The Parliament of El Salvador adopted a bill dismissing all judges and prosecutors immediately over 60 years (approximately 200 from the 700 judges in the country).
6. The new data security law in Chine entered into force on September 1, 2021.

New Scholarship

1. Benjamin Schonthal, The Case for Religious Constitutions: Comparative Constitutional Law among Buddhists and Other Religious Groups (2021) (arguing for the importance of religious constitutions in the study of comparative constitutional law)
2. Beverley Clough, The Spaces of Mental Capacity Law: Moving Beyond Binaries (forthcoming 2021) (exploring the conceptual spaces and socio-legal context which mental capacity laws inhabit)
3. James Gallen, Tanya Ní Mhuirthile (eds), Law, Responsibility and Vulnerability: State Accountability and Responsiveness (forthcoming 2021) (addressing how law and public policy cause or exacerbate vulnerability in individuals and groups)
4. Martin Belov (ed), Courts and Judicial Activism under Crisis Conditions: Policy Making in a Time of Illiberalism and Emergency Constitutionalism (forthcoming 2021) (examining topical issues related to the impact of courts on constitutional politics during extreme conditions)
5. Eugénie Mérieau, Constitutional Bricolage: Thailand’s Sacred Monarchy vs. The Rule of Law (2021) (exploring the unique constitutional model in operation in Thailand)
6. Stuart Wilson, Human rights and the transformation of property (2021) (offering a critical account of recent developments in residential lease law, mortgage bond law and eviction law in South Africa, and providing a policy rationale for these developments)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions invites submissions for the third volume of the Yearbook (2022). The deadline for paper proposals is September 17, 2021.
2. The Centre for Financial and Corporate Integrity of Coventry University, together with the Graduate Institute Geneva and the University of Pretoria, welcome submissions to an international law and politics conference on sanctions and Africa. The conference will take place online and at the Coventry University London Campus on December 9-10, 2021. The deadline for abstracts is September 15, 2021.
3. International Journal of Socio-Legal Research invites submission for its seventh volume. The deadline for submissions is September 20, 2021.
4. International Journal of Legal Science and Innovation invites submission for its third volume. The deadline for submissions is September 7, 2021. Bratislava Law Review invites submission for volume 5, of the journal. The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2021.
5. The 25th British Legal History Conference 2022, in association with the Irish Legal History Society Queen’s University in Belfast, invite submission for a conference on “Law and Constitutional Change,” to be held on July 6-9, 2022. The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to September 27, 2021.
6. The Journal of Constitutional Law Review invites submissions to be published in the next issue (December 2021). The deadline for submissions is October 2021.
7. The Department of Mercantile Law at the University of the Free State organizes the Seventh Annual International Mercantile Law Conference, to be held on November 3-5, 2021. The deadline for submission of abstracts is October 1, 2021.
8. The University of Milan, in the framework of the initiatives promoted by the roundtable for “Reception and Integration in the University”, as a member of the international network “Scholars at Risk” (SAR) and its Italian section SAR-Italia, and in view of the growing number of scholars at risk around the world applying for protection with European Union (EU) universities, issues a call for applications for 3 positions of Visiting at-risk Scholar financed by University’s funds.

Elsewhere Online

1. Rupprecht Podszun, Private enforcement and the Digital Markets Act: The Commission will not be able to do this alone, Verfassungsblog
2. Naomi Appelman, João Pedro Quintais, and Ronan Fahy, Using Terms and Conditions to apply Fundamental Rights to Content Moderation: Is Article 12 DSA a Paper Tiger?, Verfassungsblog
3. Kinga Kálmán, Where is the ‘mushroom cloud’? The PSPP decision’s perspective in one year of hindsight. Constitutional Discourse
4. Giovanni De Gregorio and Oreste Pollicino, The European Constitutional Road to Address Platform Power, Verfassungsblog
5. Thomas A. Barnico, The Title IX Sleigh Ride, New England Board of Higher Education