What’s New in Public Law

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—Juan Sebastián López, researcher in international human rights law and constitutional law, former student at Universidad Externado de Colombia, and staff member of the International Society of Public Law.

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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 of the Republic of Indonesia held that not any one singular law enforcement institution can act as the sole investigator in relation to special criminal acts of corruption.
2. The Supreme Court of India ruled that adjourning hearing a habeas corpus petition 14 times constitutes a lack of sensitivity and when the question of liberty of a person is involved, even a day’s delay counts.
3. The Constitutional Court of Colombia ordered the Santander Department of Transit and Transportation to remove a religious statue from its entrance, arguing that the principle of secularism was ignore and the administration failed to comply with the duty of neutrality in religious matters by promoting a specific religion through an administrative act.
4. The Supreme Court of Pakistan held that the Court can neither act as an appellate authority with the aim of scrutinizing the propriety, suitability, and/or adequacy of a policy, nor can it act as an advisor to the executive on matters of policy entitled to them.
5. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation of Mexico held that authorities must consult indigenous communities when water concession titles for industrial use are issue that affect their territory and their right to a healthy environment.

In the News

1. The justice minister of Poland challenges the orders from the Constitutional Court in relation to the appointment of a national prosecutor.
2. Former president Donald Trump submitted a brief to the US Supreme Court requesting the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision related to his presence on the ballot to be overturned.
3. The International Court of Justice held public hearings in the case South Africa v. Israel.
4. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that France had infringed upon the rights of a woman who was found guilty of defamation after accusing a company executive of sexual harassment at her workplace.
5. The United States Supreme Court will hear a case involving the firing of a group of union supporters that can heavily impact the role of the federal labor board.

New Scholarship

1. Nicholas Aroney, George Duke and Stephen Tierney, A theory of plural constituent power for federal systems (The article examines how pluralized constituent power functions in federal systems, arguing that the operation of plural constituent power in federations reflects a distinctive model of constitutional formation)
2. Alma Begicevic, Jennifer Balint, Constricted rights and imagined identities: Peace and accountability processes and constitution-making in Bosnia and Herzegovina (The authors argue that while the new constitution in Bosnia and Herzegovina was necessary for implementing postwar democratic transition and rebuilding processes, it has contributed to the reinforcement of ethno-territorial divisions that have led to serious consequences)
3. Claudia E. Haupt, The Horizontal effect of Fundamental Rights (The paper compares the constitutional doctrines related to speech and data privacy on social media platforms)
4. Michael P Foran, Equality Before the Law (This book presents a defence of the value of equality within law which is neither purely formal nor an entirely speculative theory of justice. It does this by combining a theoretical with a doctrinal project)
5. Lucas Henrique Muniz Da Conceição, A constitutional reflector? Assessing societal and digital constitutionalism in Meta’s Oversight Board (The article presents reflections in relation to digital constitutionalism and how it exposes different goals toward platform governance)
6. David S. Law, Canon in Comparative Constitutional Law (The paper studies the different conceptions of the term ‘canon’ and the problematic generality that the term implies)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Richard Hart Prize for best paper by an early career scholar will be awarded at the 2024 conference of the Centre de Droit Public – Public Law Centre. Submit your abstract here.
2. The International Society of Public Law welcomes you to the Society’s 10th Annual Conference, scheduled to be held on July 8-10, 2024, in Madrid, Spain. The submission window will close on February 11, 2024.
3. Munich Summer Institute 2024 & Ph.D. Workshop. The Munich Summer Institute seeks to stimulate rigorous in-depth discussion of a select number of research papers and to strengthen the interdisciplinary international research community from May 22 to May 24. For more information about the Munich Summer Institute and the MSI Ph.D. Workshop, please check out http://munich-summer-institute.org.
4. Princeton University UCHV Fellows in Law and Normative Thinking for Academic Year 2024-25. Fellows will devote the full academic year to research, discussion, and scholarly collaboration on topics related to law and normative inquiry. Candidates must submit an online application.
5. The City College of New York, CUNY, invites submissions for its Third Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Conference April 17-19, 2024. The deadline has been extended to January 31, 2024. The Conference aims to explore the contested legacy of human rights in increasingly uncertain times. Find more information on the Human Rights Forum webpage.
6. The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law currently invites submissions on a closed list of topics in the field of comparative constitutional law. A list of topics (subject to constant change) is available here. More details on how to send your expression of interest can be found here.

Elsewhere Online

1. Russ Feingold, SCOTUS to take up abortion, again (January 11, 2024), https://www.acslaw.org/inbrief/scotus-to-take-up-abortion-again
2. Shannon Hardy, Balancing Acts: The Intricacies of Enforcing ICC Arrest Warrants Against Heads of State (January 8, 2024), https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/balancing-acts-the-intricacies-of-enforcing-icc-arrest-warrants-against-heads-of-state
3. Sissy Katsoni, How to Maneuver Around Acknowledging the Right to Access Abortion: Some Thoughts on the ECtHR’s judgment in M.L. v Poland  (January 11, 2024), https://www.ejiltalk.org/how-to-maneuver-around-acknowledging-the-right-to-access-abortion-some-thoughts-on-the-ecthrs-judgment-in-m-l-v-poland
4. Lena Riemer, Luca Scheid, Leading the Way (18 January, 2024), https://verfassungsblog.de/leading-the-way
5. Arunbalaji Selvaraj, Eradicating manual scavenging: a step toward upholding human rights and social justice (January 11, 2024), https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/humanrights/2024/01/11/eradicating-manual-scavenging-a-step-toward-upholding-human-rights-and-social-justice