What’s New in Public Law

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—Silvio Roberto Vinceti, Research Fellow (Post-Doc), Department of Law, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

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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. Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion across the country.
2. The ECJ upheld the EU Commission’s decision not to suspend US citizens’ exemption visa requirement against the EU Parliament’s claim of automatic application of the reciprocity mechanism.
3. The ECtHR affirmed that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s combination of territorial and ethnic electoral requirements is incompatible with the ECHR.
4. The ECtHR fined Italy for refusing to recognize a foreign gestational surrogacy contract and ensuing the legal relationship between the child, the biological father, and the intended mother.
5. Physician associations in Korea petitioned the Constitutional Court against mandatory installation of closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras in operating rooms.

In the News

1. After constitutional scholars questioned the eligibility of presidential candidate Donald J. Trump under Section Three of the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, the debate spread through the American public debate.
2. US Democrat Senator filed an ethics complaint against US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
3. Israel’s Supreme Court adjourned the first of three hearings concerning the legality of judicial reforms.
4. The upcoming Slovakian vote will be the first general election regulated by the Digital Services Act provisions against political misinformation and electoral manipulation on social media.
5. EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager will temporarily step down from the position in light of her candidacy as the head of the European Investment Bank, with EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders set to take the helm of the antitrust division for the time being.

New Scholarship

1. William Baude & Michael Stokes Paulsen The Sweep and Force of Section Three (2023) (discussing Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution and claiming that it disqualifies former President Donald Trump from the presidential election).
2. Charles Gardner Geyh Judicial Ethics and Identity (2023) (laying out a new framework for evaluating the relationship between judicial ethics and identity and thus overcoming criticism of the traditional rule of law paradigm in judicial discipline).
3. Lidia Bonifati Constitutional Design and the Seeds of Degradation in Divided Societies: The Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina (2023) (claiming that, absent the will of the political and social forces, constitutional provisions intended to manage diversity can inadvertently produce constitutional degradation).
4. Ruijter, Scott L. Greer &Sarah Rozenblum EU Health Policy in the Aftermath of COVID-19: Neofunctionalism and Crisis-Driven Integration (2023) (claiming that the EU Member States evolving approach toward policy coordination during pandemic phases demonstrate the opportunity of more integration in European health care services).
5. The Constitutional System of the Hong Kong SAR: A Contextual Analysis (2023) (discussing the evolving constitutional arrangement known as “One Country, Two Systems,” as practiced in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) calls for papers for the 8th edition of the TILTing Perspectives Conference “Looking back, moving forward: Re-assessing technology regulation in digitalized worlds,” to be held at the Tilburg University campus on July 8-10, 2024. The deadline for Submission is January 15, 2024.
2. The Salzburg Center of European Union Studies is organizing a two-day young scholars’ workshop on March 14-15, 2024, to offer Ph.D. candidates and postdoctoral researchers in law and political science (or related disciplines) an opportunity to present papers related to European Union Studies. Paper proposals should be sent before 31 October 2023.
3. IPSA Research Committee for Comparative Judicial Studies calls for papers for its 2024 Interim Meeting to be held at The University of Texas, Austin, on October 24-26, 2024. Proposals should be submitted by April 2, 2024.
4. The Institute for Advanced Legal Studies calls for intervention at the WG Hart Workshop 2024 on “Historicising Jurisprudence: Person, Community, Form” to be held in London on June 26-27, 2024. Abstracts should be submitted by December 4, 2023.
5. Registration for the International Access to Justice Forum 2023 is open. Co-hosted by the UCI Law Initiative for Inclusive Civil Justice and the Victoria Law Foundation, the conference will take place in person on October 11–13, 2023 at UCI Law in Irvine, California, but will also be broadcast online to registered audience members.
6. The University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative (SDRI) invites presentation proposals to a Roundtable on State Courts, to be held on April 19, 2024. Paper abstracts should be submitted by November 15, 2023.
7. Graduate students of all levels are welcome to the 2nd Graduate Conference on Constitutional Change at the University of Texas at Austin on January 11-13, 2024. More details here.

Elsewhere Online

1. Derek Muller, The current waves of Section 3 claims against Donald Trump are likely doomed to fail before they even touch the merits, Election Law Blog
2. Steven Calabresi, Trump Is Disqualified from Being on Any Election Ballots, Volokh
3. John Yoo and Robert Delahunty, Why Twisting The 14th Amendment To Get Trump Won’t Hold Up In Court,The Federalist
4. Igor Popović, A Judgment Leaking from the European Court: The Case of Kovačević v Bosnia and Herzegovina, EJIL:Talk!
5. Kushtrim Istrefi, Kovačević v Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the saga of the Dayton Peace Agreement’s incompatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights, EJIL:Talk!
6. Richard Ekins, The case for leaving the ECHR, UnHerd
7. Anu Bradford, Europe’s Digital Constitution, Verfassungsblog