What’s New in Public Law

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—Anubhav Kumar, Advocate & Young Researcher, LL.M (Constitutional Law), Maharashtra National Law University, Aurangabad, India (2021).

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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 US Supreme Court blocked President Joe Biden’s vaccination mandate for large business, which the justices deemed an improper imposition on the lives and health of many Americans – while endorsing a separate federal vaccine requirement for healthcare facilities.
2. The Federal Supreme Court of Iraq provisionally suspended the newly-appointed speaker of the parliament temporarily while judges considered a challenge to appointment.
3. Supreme Court of Canada to review decision on BC school trustee’s defamation case as to whether a defamation lawsuit by a school trustee in Chilliwack, BC, should proceed against the former president of a teachers union.
4. The Turkish Constitutional Court evaluated law on Regulation of Internet Broadcasts and prevention of crime committed through such broadcasts in its decision and pointed out the relationship between freedom of expression and the press and Article 9 of the Internet Law and made recommendations to the Turkish Grand National Assembly for the reformulation of the relevant article.
5. The Indian Supreme Court appoints 5 Member Panel headed by former Judge Indu Malhotra to probe into the Prime Minister’s Security breach in his latest visit to the State of Punjab for an election campaign.
6. The Pretoria High Court rules South Africa’s controversial driving laws (South Africa’s Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act) unconstitutional.
7. The Constitutional Court of Ecuador upheld the lower court’s ruling and reaffirmed the revocation of the environmental permit for the TSX-V-listed Cornerstone Capital Resources’ Rio Magdalena project. The permit related to an initial exploration phase in the Los Cedros protected forest at the Rio Magdalena project.

In the News

1. In its first Judicial Vote of 2022, the US Senate sends Gabriel Sanchez to the California-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
2. Australian government cancels Serbian star tennis player Novak Djokovic’s visa ahead of the Australian Open, likely to result in his deportation from the country.
3. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held Bulgaria’s laws on secret surveillance violative of the right to respect for private life under the European Human Rights Convention.
4. The Government of Canada drops vaccine mandate for truckers to cross in from the United States.
5. President of Fiji extends Supreme Court of India’s retired Judge Justice Madan B Lokur’s terms as the Judge of Fiji Supreme Court’s non-resident panel for three more years.

New Scholarship

1. Tarun Arora, Pandemic and community’s sense of justice through suo motu in India (2021) (On solution to the paradox generated out of the inherent friction between constitutional authority of judicial review and resistance of judicial review of executive actions by a populist government)
2. Maciej Bernatt, Mandate of Competition Agency in Populist Times, (2022) (On how the mandate of competition agencies is affected by actions taken by populist governments.)
3. Faye Bird, ISIL in Iraq: A Critical Analysis of the UN Security Council’s Gendered Personification of (Non)States (2022) (Comprehensive and critical gendered discourse analysis of the UN Security Council’s response to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL)
4. Malcolm Feeley, Malcolm Langford, The Limits of the Legal Complex (2021) ( Provides comprehensive application of Nordic exceptionalism in the field of legal practice and challenges the explanatory theory of the legal complex, arguing instead that lawyers’ political activism is strategic choice not just socialization)
5. Samuel Fonteles, Ukrainian Constitutional Court: Attacks and Backlash (2021) (Analyzes Ukraine’s Constitutional Court , The tolerance interval theory and the backlash thesis, through a case study, which is, the decision issued on October 27, 2020, that held unconstitutional part of the powers of the National Agency for the Corruption Prevention (NAPC)
6. Abdul Ghafur Hamid, Mohd Hisham Mohd Kamal, Muhammad Munir Lallmahamood, Muhannad Munir Lallmahamood, Superior Responsibility Under the Rome Statute And Its Applicability To Constitutional Monarchy: An Appraisal (2021) (Comprehensive examination on whether constitutional monarchs could be responsible under the doctrine of superior responsibility.
7. Tarunabh Khaitan, Guarantor (or ‘Fourth Branch’) Institutions, (Forthcoming 2022) (On guarantor institutions’ (such as electoral commissions) character in a political context which shall be more trustee like rather than agent like)
8. Manwendra K Tiwari , Swati S Parmar, Of Semiotics, the Marginalised and Laws During the Lockdown in India, (2021) (On semiotics of law-making acts ‘criminal’ bereft of ‘moral culpability ‘and state’s selective enforcement of lockdown laws in India)
9. Gibney Mark, Türkelli Gamze Erdem, Krajewski Markus, Vandenhole Wouter, The Routledge Handbook on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations (2021) (Comprehensive scholarship on transnational human rights obligations into a comprehensive and wide-ranging volume.)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Ludovika – University of Public Service, Department of Constitutional and Comparative Public Law is organizing Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies in Hybrid Mode on 12-13 May 2022 and calls for abstract. The proposals can be submitted till February 15, 2022.
2. The European Journal of Legal Education calls for paper for its 3^rd Issue of online line peer reviewed legal journal published annually and dedicated to publishing high quality research and scholarship on legal pedagogy across Europe. One can submit the paper by 14^th February 2022.
3. The ‘South Asian Postgraduate Law Conference 2022 (SAPLawC’ 22)’ organized by Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka Faculty of Law, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan Faculty of Legal Studies, South Asian University, India Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai, India Jindal Global Law School, OPJGU, Sonipat, India on 25^th-26^th November called for papers. It is open for postgraduate law students, who currently follow LL.M., M.Phil. and Ph.D. research degree programs affiliated to institutions within South Asia. The last date of Submission of Abstract is 30^th January 2022.
4. The Digital Justice Centre, University of Wroclaw has a vacancy for one post-doc researcher to conduct research on the impact of new technologies on criminal justice systems. This is a research position therefore no teaching is required. The application deadline is February 3, 2022.
5. The Faculty of Law, the Chinese University of Hong Kong will host an online Conference on Teaching and Learning in Law – Directions in Legal Education 2022. The Conference will be held online on 10 – 11 June 2022. The conference calls for proposals for papers to be presented. The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 28 January 2022.
6. Call for Editors: The Editorial board of Indian Law Review invites application for the position of Editors on its Editorial board. Applicants are expected to have an academic position in a law school or in a university department/school. Researchers who work outside the university space in research institutions are also eligible to apply. Last date to apply is February 15, 2022.
7. The University of Hamburg and the Legal Priorities Project are co-organizing the 2022 Multidisciplinary Forum on Longtermism and the Law on 9-11 June 2022. The guiding theme of this Forum is the role of law in sustaining and improving life hundreds or even thousands of years into the future. Participants can submit abstract by 15^th February 2022 here.

Elsewhere Online

1. Richard Clayton QC, The Government’s New Proposals for the Human Rights Act Part 2: An Assessment, U. K Constitutional Law Association.
2. Ash Stanley-Ryan, J.C. And Others v. Belgium: The Delicate Balance of State Immunity and Human Dignity, Strasbourg Observers.
3. Julia Emtseva, Collective Security Treaty Organization: Why are Russian Troops in Kazakhstan? EJIL Talk!
4. Cem Tecimer, Restoration without the Constitution: Why constitutional restoration in Turkey does not require formal constitutional change, Verfassungsblog.
5. Mariam Kizilbash, Pakistan’s Inspirational Transgender Persons’ Law- Some Years Later, Oxford Human Rights Hub.
6. Richard Ecclestone, As a former officer, I’m horrified by England and Wales’s Police Bill, Open Democracy.
7. Quoc Tan Trung Nguyen, Hopeful signs: How some southeast Asian nations are snubbing Myanmar’s military leader, The Conversation.