What’s New in Public Law

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—Leigha Crout, PhD Candidate at King’s College London & William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Law School

—Tina Nicole Nelly Youan, PhD Candidate at Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 Université

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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 Court in Jordan rejected an appeal that would render Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 191 of the Civil Procedure Code No. 24 of 1988 unconstitutional. These paragraphs preclude the appeal of cases wherein the disputed value is less than JOD ‎10,000 (approx. USD 14,000), save in exceptional cases.
2. Bulgaria’s Supreme Court ruled that citizens will no longer be able to change their legal documents to reflect their gender identity.
3. South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that a current law mandating a minimum of 7 years imprisonment for trespass with the intention to commit a sexual offense was unconstitutional.
4. The United States Supreme Court found in favor of an Arizona defendant who had been sentenced to death, permitting him to challenge his sentence in federal court. 
5. Albania’s Constitutional Court decided against the state’s decision to establish a national Price Control Board under its constitutional emergency powers.
6. Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the state violated protesters’ constitutional rights by banning an upcoming meeting.
7. The International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to clear a roadblock erected by protesters on the only road between itself and Armenia.
8. Harare High Court Judge Joseph Mafusire ruled that the Central Africa Building Society (CABS) must pay back architects whose funds were liquidated into local currency. The case has now moved to Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court for confirmation.
9. The High Court of Seoul ruled in favor of a same-sex couple challenging the National Health Service’s refusal to offer them spousal coverage. The NHS plans to appeal to South Korea’s Supreme Court.The United States Supreme Court refrained from reviewing an Arkansas law that penalizes boycotting Israel.

In the News

1. Netanyahu’s coalition passed an initial flagship bill to change laws by a 63-47 majority, granting government control over judicial appointments and denying the Supreme Court the ability to rule legislation unconstitutional.  
2. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments related to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which “shields online platforms from lawsuits over what their users post and the platforms’ decisions to take content down.” The case is anticipated to have a potentially significant impact on free speech.
3. Philippine’s House of Representatives panel approved on Monday, February 20^th, 2023 a proposal calling for a constitutional convention to amend the 1987 Constitution, in a bid to ease restrictions on the economy.
4. In Malaysia, the Cabinet took the decision on February 20^th to grant automatic citizenship to overseas-born children of Malaysian women.
5. After the 13^th amendment was unanimously approved by the Parliament on February 7^th in Benghazi, the Lybian House of Representatives referred the draft of this amendment to the High Council of State for consideration by what was agreed upon between the two councils.
6. The Legislative Assembly in El Salvador ignored its 1-year deadline given by the Supreme Court to enact legal gender recognition regulations.
7. The Justice Department has requested that a federal judge compel former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to testify before the January 6 Grand Jury.

New Scholarship

1. Aydin Atilgan (January 10, 2023) Global Constitutionalism and the Rise of Authoritarianism: A New Era of “Sad Resignation”? (examining the relationship between global constitutionalism and authoritarianism and introducing the concept of “global constitutional culture” as the foundation of global constitutionalism discourse)
2. Maggie Blackhawk, Legislative Constitutionalism & Federal Indian Law, Yale Law Journal (forthcoming 2023) (addressing questions related to the contemporary role of judicial review in the U.S. through the lens of “Native people and their advocacy strategies, histories, constitutional philosophies, and the legal frameworks that govern them.”)
3. Indira Latorre, Independent Regulatory Agencies and Their Challenges of Democratic Legitimacy: Literature Review and Agenda for Constitutional Law in Latin America (February 20, 2023)  (proposing a new approach to discussions of constitutional problems, with a focus on Latin America)
4. Mutondi Muludzi, Afro-Feminism and the Coloniality of Gender in Constitutional and Legislative Drafting: South Africa as a case study, Southern African Public Law (January 27, 2023) (suggesting an Afro-Feminist approach to drafting legislation that promotes the inclusion of marginalized groups)
5. Ignatius Yordan Nugraha, Abusive Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments: Indonesia, the Pancasila and the Spectre of Authoritarianism (February 9, 2023) (exploring how an unconstitutional constitutional amendments doctrine could be abused to advance an illiberal or even authoritarian agenda, with Indonesia as a case study)
6. Ranieri L Resende (January 19, 2023) Precedent of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: State Compliance and Judicial Performance in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia (applying “the theoretical typologies developed by Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks to the analysis of operative mechanisms of influence of international law” within member states of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights)
7. Mark Tushnet, What’s the Problem with Populism? (First Look) (February 16, 2023)  (A book review of Rule of Law vs. Majoritarian Democracy)
8. Pedro Salazar Ugarte, The Mexican constitutional state: a constellation of autonomies (February 20, 2023), (describing the “emergence, evolution, and current crisis of autonomous constitutional bodies in Mexico.”)
9. Zsolt Szabó. Ethnic conciliation in parliaments: Western Balkans v. Western Europe (June 3, 2022) (comparing the delicate ethnic conciliatory mechanisms at legislations of the Western Balkans to those of Western Europe)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Centre for Employability, Professional Legal Education and Research at Birmingham school will hold a workshop on “Reimagining Public Law”. The abstracts should be sent by February 28, 2023.
2. You can still submit for the International Society of Public 9^th Annual conference, which will take place in Wellington, New Zealand. The deadline for the second submission is for March 20, 2023. 
3. The British Association of Comparative Law invite scholars for a series of conferences that be held at the University of Bologna Department of Legal Studies on September 14-15, 2023. The theme of that conference is Landmark Judgments. Proposals received by April 1, 2023, will receive priority. After that date, submitted proposals will be considered if space remains.
4. Columbia Law School invites submissions for a works-in-progress workshop in comparative constitutional law. Submissions are invited from scholars at all stages, though we especially welcome younger scholars, including advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty. The deadline is March 1, 2023.
5. The Transnational Legal History Group of CUHK LAW’s Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law is organizing the Third Asian Legal History Conference at the CUHK Graduate Law Centre, Hong Kong on 20-21 June 2023. Applications are due by midnight (Hong Kong time) on March 15, 2023.
6. The Revista Derecho del Estado is now seeking to globalize the scientific dialogue and connect the legal academy un the Global South and North, that is the aim of the Call of papers – First English Issue N° 57 September – December 2023. The main subject is Public Law. Manuscript must be sent by April 10^th  2023.

Elsewhere Online

1. Anja Bossow & Stav Zeitouni, Israel’s New Citizenship Deprivation-Deportation Pipeline (February 21, 2023) https://verfassungsblog.de/israels-new-citizenship-deprivation-deportation-pipeline/
2. Alexis Hoag-Fordjour, In Rare Win for People on Death Row, Justices Chide Arizona for Ignoring Supreme Court Precedent (February 23, 2023) https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/02/in-rare-win-for-people-on-death-row-justices-chide-arizona-for-ignoring-supreme-court-precedent/
3. Ellena Erskine, Court Declines to Stay Execution of Florida Man Whose Jury Did Not Unanimously Vote for Death Penalty (February 23, 2023) https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/02/court-declines-to-stay-execution-of-florida-man-whose-jury-did-not-unanimously-vote-for-death-penalty/
4. Eszter Polgári & Tamás Dombos, Ignorance and Evil: The Hungarian Constitutional Court on Legal Gender Recognition for Trans People (February 21, 2023) https://verfassungsblog.de/ignorance-and-evil/
5. Julio Ríos-Figueroa, Democratic Backsliding and the Supreme Court in Mexico (February 22, 2023) https://verfassungsblog.de/democratic-backsliding-and-the-supreme-court-in-mexico/