What’s New in Public Law

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Surbhi Karwa, PhD Candidate, UNSW, Sydney.

Yacine Ben Chaabane Mousli, Master’s student, University Paris Panthéon-Assas.

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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 European Court of Human Rights accepts that absence of legal recognition of same sex couples is discriminatory and violative of Article 14 of the ECHR.
2. In a highly divided Court, the Supreme Court of the United States held that Alabama’s districting plan violated §2 of the Voting Rights Act.
3. The European Court of Justice ruled that the Polish justice reform of December 2019 infringes European Union law, stating that the value of the rule of law is an integral part of the European Union and States should prevent its regression.
4. The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear a case involving the right of a woman who requires organ transplantation to refuse vaccination.
5. The European Court of Human Rights declared that sanctioning a union member for contempt of the national flag is a violation of Article 10 of the Convention.

In the News

1. Polish Supreme Court overturns presidential pardon of government minister. The Constitutional Tribunal had affirmed the pardon four days ago.
2. Greenland drafts a constitution to regain independence from Denmark and calling for a Greenlandic republic.
3. The lower House of the Australian Parliament approves the bill to hold a constitutional referendum on Indigenous advisory body. 
4. Opposition Parties in Malta introduce a bill to include the environment as a fundamental constitutional right.
5. France’s National Assembly speaker has declared the law nullifying the pension reform as unconstitutional, thereby obstructing any parliamentary discussion on the matter.
6. Alassane Ouattara, President of Ivory Coast, designated three new members of the Constitutional Council.

New Scholarship

1. Blackhawk, Maggie, ‘Legislative Constitutionalism and Federal Indian Law’ (presenting a case study of federal Indian law in reference to legislative constitutionalism).
2. Chang, Wen-Chen, Kelley Loper, Mara Malagodi, Ruth Rubio-Marin, ‘Gender, Sexualisty and Constitutionalism in Asia’(Forthcoming) (edited volume on equal citizenship claims of women and sexual and gender diverse people in Asian jurisdictions).
3. Khan, Maryam S., ‘The Lawyer’s Movement in Pakistan: How Legal Actors Mobilize in Hybrid Regimes’ (Explaining the role of lawyer-leaders in the 2007-09 Lawyer’s Movement in Pakistan through empirical and qualitative research).
4. Li, Ling, ‘Order of Power in China’s Court’ (Forthcoming) (Presenting a theory of the ‘order of power’ in explaining the dynamics between political and legal orders in China’s courts).
5. Verdugo, Sergio, ‘Is it time to Abandon the Theory of Constituent Power’ (making the case against the theory of constituent power and presenting the ‘dilemma of constituent power redemption’).
6. Young, Alison, L., ‘Unchecked Power?: How Recent Constitutional Reforms are Threatening UK Democracy’ (Forthcoming) (providing a consolidated account of events that endanger democracy and constitutional governance in the United Kingdom).
7. Zurn, Christopher F., ‘Splitsville USA: A Democratic Argument for Breaking Up the United States’ (making the case for breaking up to save representative democracy in the USA context).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. Applications are now open for the inaugural Academy in Advanced Legal Research and Method to be held from 27 November to 1 December 2023 by the Transnational Association of Legal Scholars. Apply by 28 July 2023.
2. Applications are now open for the Wallace Johnson First Book Program by American Society for Legal History for first book authors. Apply by 14 July 2023.
3. Nominations are now open for the Asian Law and Society Association 2023 awards for distinguished book and article. The award ceremony will be held in December 2023.
4. Call for papers is now live for the British Legal History Conference 2024, ‘Insiders and Outsiders in the History of Law’. Submit abstracts by 1 September 2023.
5. Journal of African Law welcomes new articles.

Elsewhere Online

1. Wijesinha, Shanil, ‘The Forms and Practices of Interconstitutionalism in Sri Lanka’ (18 May 2023).
2. Agarwal, Akshat, ‘Marriage Equality at the Doors of the Indian Supreme Court’ (24 May 2023).
3. Ezeh, Ugochukwu, ‘Nigeria: A Problematic Presidential Inauguration’ (Two Part Series) (2 June 2023).
4. Tierney, Stephen, Alison L. Young,  ‘The House of Lords Constitution Committee Reports on the Illegal Migration Bill’ (23 May 2023).
5. Fabio de Sa e Silva and others, ‘Autocratic Legalism’ (30 May 2023).
6. During the inauguration of the 2023 academic year in the University of Chile, Profesor Guillaume Tusseau discussed the theory of comparison in constitutional law.