What’s New in Public Law

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—Claudia Marchese, Research Fellow in Comparative Public Law at the University of Sassari (Italy)

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Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. South Africa’s electoral commission appealed to the Constitutional Court to rule on whether former President Jacob Zuma can stand as a candidate in general elections in May considering that in 2021 he was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison.
2. Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that the Information and Communication Technologies Authority has no right to block online content and that the Internet law poses undue limits to freedom of expression.
3. The Spanish Constitutional Court has unanimously suspended, on request of the Government, the popular legislative initiative to declare the independence of Catalonia.
4. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that has the potential to impact the federal charges against former President Donald J. Trump for plotting to subvert the 2020 election. The question for the justices is whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 can be used to prosecute members of the mob who stormed the Capitol.

In the News

1. On 9 April, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned for the first time a state, Switzerland, for inaction in face of the climate crisis.
2. The Polish parliament initiated a debate on four different legislative proposals aimed at liberalising abortion and abolishing the almost total ban introduced by the previous government.
3. In a resolution adopted on 11 April with 336 votes in favour, 163 against and 39 abstentions, the members of the European Parliament urged the Council to add sexual and reproductive healthcare and the right to a safe and legal abortion to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
4. On 10 April the European Parliament endorsed a temporary extension until 3 April 2026 of the current e-Privacy derogation that allows the voluntary detection, by internet platforms, of child sexual abuse material online.

New Scholarship

1. Heinz Klug, Sanele Sibanda, The Rule of Law in South Africa (forthcoming 2024) (This book examines the rule of law in South Africa from the colonial period until the present constitutional moment).
2. Paul Burgess, AI and the Rule of Law. The Necessary Evolution of a Concept (2024) (This book considers the ways in which the concept of rule of law could evolve in order to ensure that the exercise of power by Artificial Intelligence does not become arbitrary).
3. Armin von Bogdandy, The Emergence of European Society through Public Law. A Hegelian and Anti-Schmittian Approach (2024) (This volume presents a new narrative of European legal integration).
4. Tom Gerald Daly, Dinesha Samararatne (eds.), Democratic Consolidation and Constitutional Endurance in Asia and Africa. Comparing Uneven Pathways (2024) (This book explores the constitutional consolidation in seven African and Asian states).

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law invites submissions from constitutional scholars and practitioners everywhere. The Encyclopedia has a closed list of topics in the field of comparative constitutional law. For further information, contact the Managing Editor at contact@mpeccol.de.
2. The fifth conference of the Italian chapter (ICON•S Italy) of the International Society of Public Law (ICON•S) will take place at the University of Trento on 18 and 19 October 2024. Abstracts (in Italian or English) of individual papers (maximum 500 words) or fully formed panels (maximum 1000 words) must be submitted by 15 June 2024.
3. IACL Roundtable on “Current challenges to constitutional democracy” will take place at the Sapienza University of Rome on 3 and 4 October 2024.  Submissions are welcomed from senior and junior scholars in English or French. Within the frame of the conference, senior scholars are invited to present proposals addressing “elections” or “rule of law” in the age of democratic decline, while junior scholars are invited to submit proposals on “Democracy in the age of artificial intelligence”. The deadline for submission is 1^st July 2024.
4. The Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Ibero-American Institute of Constitutional Law organize the XVI Ibero-American Congress of Constitutional Law “Constitutionalism for 21st century democracy” from 21 to 25 October 2024. The deadline for submission is 30 May 2024.

Elsewhere Online

1. Maxim Bönnemann, Maria Antonia Tigre, The Transformation of European Climate Change Litigation, Verfassungsblog.
2. Wojciech Sadurski, Hercules or Sisyphus? On the legacy of statutory lawlessness in post-autocratic Poland, Verfassungsblog.
3. Joseph H.H. Weiler, Citizenship for Sale (Commission v Malta), Verfassungsblog.
4. Paris Aslanidis, Greece and the 2024 European Parliament elections – a purely domestic affair?, LSEblog.
5. Divya Srivastava, What role should AI play in global health?, LSEblog.