What’s New in Public Law

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—Irina Criveț, PhD Candidate in Public Law, Koç University

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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 Attorney General of the Republic of Portugal defended the nullity of the Constitutional Court’s judgement no.268/2022, the Metadata Act, which imposes a retroactive ban on the collection of this type of information for the purpose of a criminal investigation. The Constitutional Court will evaluate the request.
2. A team of lawyers from the Public Interest Litigation Network and Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation challenged Malta’s freedom of information act at the Constitutional Court. They argue that the remedies it provides are unconstitutional because they do not respect the freedom of expression and information.
3. The Polish Constitutional Tribunal postponed the hearing in case K 8/21 concerning the compliance of EU law with the Constitution to 21 June 2022.
4. The Constitutional Court of South Africa will decide whether the Copyright Act is unconstitutional for limiting access to books in accessible formats for persons with visual disabilities.
5. The Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled to decriminalise assisted medical suicide for patients.
6. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that defendants accused of violent crimes such as homicide and sexual assault can use self-induced extreme intoxication as a defense.

In the News

1. Professor Dainius Zalima, former President of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, was nominated as a candidate to the UN Human Rights Committee for 2023-2026.
2. On 5 June, the Kazakhs will participate to a national referendum on the draft amendments to the Constitution that intends to transform the country from a presidential system to a parliamentary one.
3. Illinois Supreme Court sitting justice Justice Rita Garman will retire on 7 July.
4. The US Senate passed legislation expanding security for supreme court justices and their immediate family members.
5. The Albanian Parliament rejected the opposition’s resolution condemning the Srebrenica Genocide committed by Serbian troops in 1995.
6. The Turkish Parliament passed a bill on the prevention of violence against women and health care workers.
7. The Council of States, Switzerland’s upper house, will vote on the Parliament proposal to lower the tax for tampons and sanitary pads from 7.7% to 2.5%.

New Scholarship

1. Ximena Benavides, Inequitable by Design: The Law and Politics of Global COVID-19 Vaccine Access – and A Way Out, forthcoming Michigan Journal of Law Reform (examines the *patent culture* that politicises healthcare access in the context of COVID-19 vaccination)
2. Erica Howard, Headscarves and the CJEU: Protecting Fundamental Rights and Pandering to Prejudice, the CJEU Does Both, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 29, no. 2 (2022) (explores whether the CJEU offers more protection to Muslim women who want to wear headscarves at work for religious reasons)
3. Fruzsina Gardos-Orosz, Kinga Zakarias (eds) The main lines of the jurisprudence of the Hungarian Constitutional Court 30 case studies from the 30 years of the Constitutional Court (1990 to 2020) Nomos (2022) (complies 30 landmark case studies from Hungarian jurisprudence)
4. James E. Fleming, Constructing Basic Liberties, A Defense of Substantive Due Process, (forthcoming University of Chicago Press) (2022) (analyses the doctrine of substantive due process and argues “that substantive due process is a worthy practice that is based on the best understanding of our constitutional commitments to protecting ordered liberty and securing the status and benefits of equal citizenship for all.”)
5. John V. Orth, “Shall Not be Construed”: Reversal of Supreme Court Decisions by Constitutional Amendment, Florida Law Review Forum 72 (2022) (examines the implications of “small changes of wording can signal large changes of thought in the US Constitution” by exploring the example found in the Eleventh, Sixteenth Amendments and the Reconstruction Amendments)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The ICON-S Committee on Community and Engagement is hosting a virtual workshop on ‘Towards an International Academic Career: Doing a Ph.D. in Public Law’ on 2 June 2022. All are welcome at no cost.
2. The Italian Constitutional Court has opened 4 positions for legal experts in foreign law (English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese) and 1 position for an expert in communication (English). All info here. Deadline for applications is 20 May 2022
3. The Australian National University (ANU) accepts book proposals for the Early Career Researcher (ECR) Prize in Legal Scholarship. The DL for proposal submission is midnight (AET) 9 December 2022.
4. The University of British Columbia, Peter A. Allard School of Law 2022-2023 Global South Visiting Scholar In-Residence Program calls for applications. The DL is 30 June 2022.
5. The Economic and Labour Relations Review Journal issued a call for papers for the special issue December 2023 on The political economy and labour relations of Sport Mega-Events. Abstracts and symposium drafts are due by 31 July 2022.
6. The World Trade Congress on Gender, to be held on 5-7 December at the WTO in Geneva under the theme “Gender Equality for Sustainable Trade and Recovery”, invites the submission of detailed abstract defining research questions, methodological approach and outcomes by 1 July 2022 to trade-gender@wto.org with the subject “WTCG — Call for Papers”.
7. The Institute for European Studies, Malta, issued a call for papers for the “20 years of EU Membership” Conference. Please send an abstract (maximum 300 words) and a short bio-note listing your qualifications and professional affiliation by 23 September 2022. Papers should be between 4,000 and 6,000  words long, including references and footnotes. Paper proposals and/or any additional questions should be addressed to Marta Migliorati at marta.migliorati[at]um.edu.mt.
8. The International Islamophobia Studies Research Association (IISRA) organises a conference on States of Islamophobia (Studies) in Istanbul, Turkey, 14-16 July 2022. Applicants are encouraged to submit fully-formed panels that can address the theme conference from an academic field or an interdisciplinary framing. Abstracts are limited to 300 words and a one paragraph (100 words). Abstracts are due by 31 May 2022.
9. The University of Bayreuth, Chair of Food Law, organises the “Innovate Food Law” writing competition and welcomes submissions of legal essays of min. 2,500 words that will explore the topic of future food law and policy. The winner will be awarded with the prize of 700 euro. The deadline is July 15, 2022. 
10. WJP, the Wright Center, and Bright Line Watch seek proposals for works-in-process to be presented at a workshop on 11-13 November 2022, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. Papers related to the trajectory of the rule of law in the United States and its relationship with ongoing concerns about the risks to democracy in the United States and around the world are welcomed; studies of courts, prosecutors and other legal institutions, access to justice, racial disparities in the legal system, electoral integrity, media coverage of legal issues, academic integrity and trust in institutions generally. We encourage papers using multidisciplinary and novel research methods, including but not limited to computational methods, corpus linguistics, synthetic cases, and other techniques. Interested scholars should submit an abstract of up to 500 words with a CV no later than 1 June 2022, to researchconsortium@worldjusticeproject.org. 
11. IE University Law School, with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, launched the “Lawtomation” Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and called for participants to submit an abstract of no more than 500 words via the dedicated online form. Abstracts must be written in English. The deadline for submission is 20 June 2022.
12. The University of Zurich will host a Conference on “Contested Equality: International and Comparative Legal Perspectives” on October 20-21, 2022. The deadline for abstract submission is 20 May 2022.

Elsewhere Online

1. M. Jannani, The Illegality of the Khargone Demolitions, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
2. Toni Mauro, The Marble Palace Blog: At Canada’s Supreme Court, There Are No Leaks,
3. Eliav Lieblich, Wrong to the Core the Supreme Court of Israel’s Ruling on Masafer Yatta, Verfassungsblog
4. Lorenzo Gradoni, Is the dispute between Germany and Italy over state immunity coming to an end (Despite being back at the ICJ)?, EJIL Talk
5. Irina Criveț, ‘Moldova, Mic-drop!’: A Long Awaited Ratification of the Istanbul Convention, IACL-AIDC Blog
6. Oskar Sherry, LGBT Rights as administrative law? Tang Seng Kee v Attorney-General, Oxford Human Rights Hub
7. Martino Comelli, Christian Democracy is Culpable for Europe’s Democratic Backsliding, The Loop ECPR’s Political Science Blog
8. Asanga Welikala, Economic Crisis and Constitutional Reform in Sri Lanka, IACL-AIDC Blog
9. Gábor Mészáros, Never Ending Exception, Verfassungsblog
10. Cem Tecimer, De-AKPification, How to Treat AKP-Operatives in a Post-AKP Turkey, Verfassungsblog