What’s New in Public Law

–Maja Sahadžić, Ph.D. Researcher, University of Antwerp

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 contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Constitutional Court of Russia ruled that the country does not have to comply with a 2014 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling to pay 2 billion USD to the shareholders of the now-defunct Yukos oil firm, clarifying that the ECHR decisions oblige Russia to the extent that they comply with the Russian Constitution.
2. The US Supreme Court denied certiorari in Abbott v. Veasey, which sought to challenge a contentious Texas voter identification law.
3. The outgoing chief of the Constitutional Court of South Korea insists that the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye should end as soon as possible in line with the wishes of the people.
4. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that the Thirteenth Amendment to the Atomic Energy Act is partially incompatible with the Basic Law.
5. The Constitutional Court of Indonesia dismissed one of its members, Patrialis Akbar, who was taken into custody by the Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) last week, finding Akbar’s alleged involvement in a graft scandal a grave offense on judicial ethics.

In the News

1. The UK Parliament adopted a statute to empower PM Theresa May to notify the EU of the UK’s intent to withdraw.
2. The Romanian government repealed a decree that had decriminalized corruption offenses and official misconduct in which the damages were less than 44,000 EUR, after public protests and a challenge in the Constitutional Court.
3. Scotland’s devolved parliament will vote on the triggering of Article 50.
4. A federal judge in Seattle blocks President Donald Trump’s immigration order.
5. The Parliament in Turkey sent the constitutional amendments that will change the country’s political system to an executive presidential system to President Erdoğan for his approval.

New Scholarship

1. Richard Albert, Imposed Constitutions with Consent?, Boston College Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 434 (2017) (identifying three categories of imposed constitutions–those that are amended, adjudicated and interpreted by others–outside of the context of war or conquest)
2. Melissa Crouch and Tim Lindsey (eds.), Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar (2017) (addressing the dynamics of the legal system of Myanmar in the context of the dramatic but incomplete transition to democracy that formally began in 2011)
3. Jens Jungblut and Deanna Rexe, Higher Education Policy in Canada and Germany: Assessing Multi-Level and Multi-Actor Coordination Bodies for Policy-Making in Federal Systems (2017) Policy and Society (analyzing the way in which coordination bodies responsible for higher education policy in two federal countries, Canada and Germany, organize their activities)
4. David Landau, Substitute and Complement Theories of Judicial Review (forthcoming 2017) Indiana Law Journal (highlighting the utility of a theory of judicial review that emphasizes judicial consideration of external support)
5. Wojciech Sadurski and Edin Hodžić (eds.), Six working papers on the role and performance of constitutional courts in post-Yugoslav transitions (2017) (exploring doctrinal and methodological assumptions and challenges regarding the role of constitutional courts in democratic transitions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia)
6. Ruvi Ziegler, Voting Rights of Refugees (2017) (developing a legal argument about the voting rights of refugees recognised in the 1951 Geneva Convention)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. The Porto Faculty of Law, Universidade Católica Portuguesa invites submissions to its conference on “Constitutionalism in a Plural World”, to be held in Porto, on November 22-23, 2017. The conference focuses on critical examination of constitutionalism. Abstracts are due by July 15, 2017.
2. The Center for the Study of International Peace and Security (CSIPS) invites submission for its inaugural Annual Middle East Peace Conference on “One State”, “Two State” and “Third Way” solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: paving the way to a functional  Palestinian state, to be held in London, on May 12, 2017. Submissions are due by February 15, 2017.
3. Africa Journal of Comparative Constitutional Law welcomes scholarly articles, reviews (book and case reviews) on constitutional law issues that focus on, or are relevant to Africa and the developing world for its inaugural issue.
4. The Faculty of Law, University of Latvia organizes the Annual Conference of the Central and Eastern European Network of Jurisprudence (CEENJ) on “Jurisprudence in Central and Eastern Europe: Work in Progress 2017,” to be held in Riga, on September 15-16, 2017. Submissions are due by May 15, 2017.
5. The Government and Law Research Group at the University of Antwerp organizes the seventh edition of the yearly doctoral conference “Hybrid Forms of Governance: Moving Beyond Traditional Public Law,” to be held in Antwerp, on May 17, 2017. The conference will discuss emerging questions on hybrid forms of governance.

Elsewhere Online

1. Bertil Emrah Oder, Turkey’s ultimate shift to a presidential system: the most recent constitutional amendments in details, ConstitutionNet
2. Colin PA Jones, No country for old emperors, The Japan Times
3. Tony Blackshield, ‘Incapable of being chosen,’ AUSPUBLAW
4. George Williams, Susan Kiefel: Australia’s first female chief justice, The Sydney Morning Herald
5. Noah Feldman, Churches Break Politics Rule All the Time. So End It, Bloomberg View
6. Doris Toyou, International Treaty and Constitution: Contradictions of Cameroon, JURIST
7. Gautam Bhatia, Contrapuntal Reading: Outlines of a Theory, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
8. Mark Elliot, Miller and the modern British constitution, Public Law for Everyone
9. Stefan Theil, A Vote of Confidence for the German Democratic Order: The German Federal Constitutional Court Ruling on the Application to Ban the National Democratic Party, UK Constitutional Law Association
10. Aleks Szczerbiak, Is Poland’s constitutional tribunal crisis over?, The Constitution Unit
11. Bianca Selejan Gutan, ‘We Don’t Need No Constitution’ – On a Sad EU Membership Anniversary in Romania, Verfassungsblog
12. To follow news from the Conseil constitutionnel on the French presidential election, visit this page here.