What’s New in Public Law

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–Irina Criveț, PhD Candidate 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. South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturned the impeachment of the public safety minister due to the Halloween crowd surge that left almost 160 people dead in a popular nightlife area in Seoul.
2. Mali’s Constitutional Court endorsed the final results of the last month’s referendum on the country’s new Constitution.
3. The Thailand’s Office of the Ombudsman will ask the Constitutional Court to determine whether the parliamentary decision to block the renomination of prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat for the post violated the Constitution. The Constitutional Court had suspended Mr Pita from serving as MP due to his ownership of shares in the now defunct media company ITV. The Thai Constitution mandates that individuals are prohibited from running in an election of Members of the House of Representatives if they are shareholders of any newspaper or mass media business.
4. Belgian Constitutional Court ruled that the Flemish region decree prohibiting direct or indirect financial support to places of worship from abroad violated the Constitution.
5. After a gay Peru citizen took legal action against the registration office for rejecting the recording of their marriage conducted abroad, citing a violation of their constitutional rights, the Peruvian high court has ruled in favour of the LGBTQ community by mandating the official registration of same-sex unions in public records.

In the News

1. Israel’s Parliament passed the so-called ‘reasonableness bill’ that strips the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable.
2. The Cambodia’s ruling party, Cambodian People’s Party, won the majority of parliamentary seats in the 23 July 2023 general election. The election’s credibility has been harshly criticised due to the exclusion of the opposition party.
3. Despite low poll turnout and without ensuring a majority, the People’s Party and Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party declared victory over the Spanish elections on 23 July 2023.
4. The Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, defied the US Supreme Court ruling in Allen v Milligan, which stated that the previous congressional map with only one majority-Black district was “racially gerrymandered”, therefore, violating the Voting Rights Act, by refusing to draw a second Black congressional district.
5. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) drew attention and expressed concern over the interference in the electoral process in Guatemala. The IACHR’s intervention comes at a time when the police raided the office of Semilla presidential candidate.

New Scholarship

1. Yusra Suedi & Marie Fall (2023) Climate Change Litigation before the African Human Rights System: Prospects and Pitfalls: Practice Note: GNHRE Climate Litigation in Global South Project, Journal of Human Rights Practice (provides insights to non-state actors and their legal representatives on prospective procedural challenges that may arise with the emergence of climate litigation within the African human rights system.)
2. Bill Swannie (2023) Protection from Forced Eviction: What rights do social tenants have under human rights charters?, Australian Journal of Human Rights (investigates the rights of social housing tenants under Australian human rights charters, highlighting differences in enforceability across Victoria, Queensland, and the Australian Capital Territory, and proposes strategies to enhance accessibility and effectiveness of the right to home for these tenants.)
3. Ridwanul Hoque & Rokeya Chowdhury (Eds.) (2023) A History of the Constitution of Bangladesh: The Founding, Development, and Way Ahead (1st ed.) Routledge (examines the fifty-years constitution-making phenomenon in the case of Bangladesh, focusing on goals, performances, and current challenges by examining the interactions between people, political parties, leaders ad legal institutions in shaping the Constitution.)
4. Cedric Kershwyn Bassuday (2023) Mediated Settlement Agreements in South Africa: A Judicial Review. Doctoral thesis, Durham University (inquiring “when should a court review a settlement agreement?” the author assesses the South African’s take on the suitability of judicial review of a mediated settlement agreement.)
5. Edoardo Celeste & Giovanni De Gregorio (2023) Towards a Right to Digital Education? Constitutional Challenges of Edtech, 14 JIPITEC 234 (explores the shift towards digital education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, acknowledging both its benefits for students with disabilities and those in removed areas to access education, while also discussing the constitutional challenges posed by the dominance of private actors in the EdTech sector, ultimately calling for effective regulatory frameworks to promote the right to digital education as a component of the right to quality education in the digital age.)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The International Review of the Red Cross calls for proposals that address the IHL-peace-nexus for publication in Fall 2024 “International Humanitarian Law and Peace: Lessons for the Future”. The deadline for proposals is 15 August 2023.
2. The Research Centre for State and Law (SteR), within the context of the Jean Monnet Chair on Rule of Law in the EU and national legal orders (EURoLNAT) invites participants to the Conference ‘From Rule of Law Backsliding to a Sustainable Rule of Law’ that will take place on 21-22 September 2023, in Nijmehen, the Netherlands.
3. Tilburg University Law Faculty and NOMIKI BIBLIOTHIKI College are offering a university certificate course on ‘Law & Technology’ in Athens and online.The course in question focuses on technological developments in law. More information is available here.
4. Digi Con, Computer Law and Security Review (CLSR), in collaboration with the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), are organising the ‘Politics, Philosophy and Law of Generative AI’ Symposium. The organisers invite contributions in the form of a blog post or papers on Artificial Intelligence and regulation nexus. The contributions must be submitted by the 15September 2023 following the guidelines imposed.
5. The International Migration Review invites contributions to the special issue honoring the 60th anniversary of the journal – Evolving Models of Internation Migration Research. The issue focuses on the many aspects of international migration and is interested in thoughtful reflections and critiques of current and past issues of the research on migration. The extended abstracts are due on 30 September 2023.

Elsewhere Online

1. Aeyal Gross, An Unreasonable Amendment The Constitutional Capture in Israel, Verfassungsblog
2. Mohd. Fahad Ansari, Redefining Intimacy and Individual Liberties: Unravelling the Kiran Rawat Judgment, Oxford Human Rights Hub
3. Lucas Lixinski, Establishing Membership of the First Nations Voice – An International Law Perspective, AUSPUBLAW
4. Faraz Shahlaei, The Caster Semenya Judgment of the ECtHR: Why It Should Not be the Final Whistle?, EJIL:Talk!
5. Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, Pablo Trigo Kramcsák, ChatGPT and Lawful Bases for Training AI: A Blended Approach?, The Digital Constitutionalist The Future of Constitutionalism
6. David Bilchitz, Justice for Animals: A Theory in Search of Moral Principles, Open Global Rights
7. Merel Vrancken, Not The Court’s Finest Work: Inclusive Education and Reasonable Accommodations for Pupils with Disabilities in T.H. v. Bulgaria, Strasbourg Observers
8. Anshul Dalmia, Dogs’ Own Country? Solving the Conundrum of Stray Dogs before the Supreme Court, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
9. Joshua Malidzo Nyawa, Reasonable Accommodation of Religious Beliefs at the Workplace – An Account from Kenya, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy