What’s New in Public Law

–Wilson Seraine da Silva Neto, Lawyer and Master’s student in Constitutional Law at the University of Coimbra, Portugal

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. Thailand’s Constitutional Court has refused to accept a petition from the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP), requesting that it rule on the constitutionality of a July 19 parliamentary vote that prevented the party’s leader Pita Limjaroenrat from renominating himself as prime minister.
2. Taiwan’s Constitutional Court found that a rule governing how appeals of certain criminal cases are allotted to Supreme Court judges does not violate the Constitution, narrowing the hopes for a retrial of 35 prisoners now on death row.
3. The Federal Supreme Court of Brazil obtained most votes to consider constitutional the adoption of the procedural judge by the Judiciary throughout the country.
4. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a legal battle over which voting map should be used for Miami’s upcoming elections, deciding that a map drawn by the city should be used.
5. Finland’s Supreme Court has denied Finns Party MP Sebastian Tynkkynen leave to appeal his conviction for ethnic agitation. In October 2021 the Oulu District Court fined him 4,400 euros after finding him guilty in relation to two social media posts he wrote in 2017.

In the News

1. The Indian Supreme Court has issued a handbook for judges urging them to shun words like seductress, vamp, spinster and harlot when talking about women.
2.  In landmark climate decision, the Montana District Court decided in favor of young people who alleged the state violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment” by promoting the use of fossil fuels.
3. Venezuela appeals to US Supreme Court to limit the number of companies that could participate in a court-ordered auction of shares in a parent of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum.
4. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had signed a law changing how Constitutional Court judges are chosen, which is necessary to launch EU membership talks.
5. Czech judge denies Constitutional Court nomination after charges of communist past. The allegations centered around suspicions that he might have knowingly issued guilty verdicts in more than 100 trials influenced by communist interests.

New Scholarship

1. Harry Surden (translated by Saul Tourinho and Wilson Seraine Neto). Machine Learning e o Direito (2023) (Translation of the article “Machine learning and Law“, published in 2014, which shows the impact of machine learning on legal practice).
2. Ali Sarfaraz, Consider the Balance That the Supreme Court of Canada Aims to Strike Between ‘The State’s Interest in the Investigation and Prosecution of Crime and the Media’s Right to Privacy in Gathering and Disseminating the News’ With Reference to V. Vice Media Cana (2023) (analyzing the case R v Vice Media that confronts the legal intricacies surrounding journalistic privilege and forces society to reflect on the importance of a free press in a democratic society).
3. Antoni Abat i Ninet (ed), Constitutional Law and Politics of Secession (2023) (This collection presents an analysis of the concept of secession and its constitutional accommodation alongside an assessment of the effects of secession in constitutional and international law)
4. Jean-François Tremblay, The Forum of Federations Handbook of Fiscal Federalism (2023) (This book Offers in-depth insights into 12 key federal countries and their fiscal arrangements and provides comparative cross-cutting analysis on fiscal federalism management in multi-level systems)
5. Susana Aires de Sousa, Direito em mudança: A proposta de regulamento Europeu sobre inteligência artificial: algumas questões jurídicas (2023) (This book discuss the European regulation proposal on artificial intelligence).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Coimbra European Studies Association invites you to the Seminar “Reinventar o Agronegócio” that will take place in the Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra, on 20 September 2023.
2. The Getulio Vargas Foundation (São Paulo) invites you to the event “O Direito, a Economia e as Neurociências” that will be by 30 August 2023, with the aim of debating current issues involving law, economics and neurosciences. The event will be streamed on YouTube.
3. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research welcomes abstracts for the conference “Aristotle (and Aristotelianism) on justice and (in)equality: contemporary projections” by 25 September 2023. The event will take place in Coimbra on 6 – 7 December 2023.
4. The National Constitution Center invites you to the National First Amendment Summit to discuss the increasing threats to freedom of expression and to celebrate the opening of the Center’s new First Amendment gallery. The event will take place in Philadelphia on 13 September 2023.
5. The School of Law, University of Buckingham and the Global Human Rights Centre, London, welcomes abstracts for presentation to the International Conference on Human Rights, Sustainability and Climate Change by 3 September 2023. The conference will take place at University of Buckingham on 4 – 5 October 2023.

Elsewhere Online

1. Chris Horner, “The EPA Defies the Supreme Court”, The Wall Street Journal
2. William McGurn, “No Catholics Need Adopt”, The Wall Street Journal
3. Jennifer Holleis, “How cybercrime laws are silencing dissent in Mideast”, DW
4. Sally Hayden, “Welcome to Europe, Where Mass Death Has Become Normal: This is what a crisis of global inequality looks like”, The New York Times
5. Editorial, “The Guardian view on murder in Ecuador: a tide of violence reaches new heights”, The Guardian