What’s New in Public Law

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–Neslihan Çetin, PhD Candidate (University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne)

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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 Supreme Court turned away tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s attempt to challenge the terms of an agreement he reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission that require a lawyer to review some of his social media posts.
2. The Supreme Court for a second time shot down a request from former Trump adviser Peter Navarro to avoid further prison time over his contempt of Congress conviction.
3. Indonesia’s Constitutional Court rejected two appeals lodged by losing presidential candidates, upholding the landslide victory of Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto at February’s presidential election.
4. The Constitutional Court of Korea struck down an inheritance rule that mandates certain portions of an inheritance be given to siblings of the dead.
5. Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis broke his oath of office and grossly violated the constitution with his statements about Jewish people, the Constitutional Court ruled.
6. Ecuador’s constitutional court decided not to process legal protection appeals aimed at resuming activities at the US$3bn Llurimagua copper-molybdenum project.
7. The Constitutional Court of Costa Rica rejected the action filed by several fishermen associations against the expansion of the boundaries of Cocos Island National Park established through an Executive Decree.
8. The Taiwan Constitutional Court ruled that the offense of publicly insulting someone is constitutional, but is limited to instances where it causes damage to another person’s social reputation or personal dignity, beyond what a reasonable person could be expected to endure.

In the News

1. Voting rights advocates celebrated progress against felon disenfranchisement after a federal judge in North Carolina ruled that felons cannot be prosecuted for unknowingly voting before the end of their sentence.
2. The US Supreme Court heard one of the most extreme anti-abortion cases yet. Idaho’s law requires doctors to treat pregnant women’s health as disposable – and the loss of their lives as an acceptable risk.
3. The German upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, has approved an amendment to the Energy Industry Act that sets out a new regulatory framework for the government’s planned national hydrogen pipeline network.
4. The Election Commission of India (ECI) issued election code violation notices to India’s two largest political parties, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC).
5. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
6. Iraq’s parliament has passed a bill criminalising same-sex relationships with jail terms of between 10 and 15 years. Transgender people could also be sent to prison for between one and three years under the new law.
7. A Russian court has placed Forbes journalist Sergey Mingazov under house arrest after he was detained for allegedly spreading fake news about the Russian armed forces.
8. Taiwan’s constitutional court debated the constitutionality of the death penalty in a case brought by 37 petitioners who are currently on death row.

New Scholarship

1. Paul Burgess, AI and the Rule of Law (This book considers the ways in which the concept of the Rule of Law will need to evolve in order to ensure that the exercise of power by Artificial Intelligence (AI) does not become arbitrary and does not proceed unchecked.) – use the code GLR AT5 to get 20% off
2. Cristina Fasone, Edmondo Mostacci, Graziella Romeo, Judicial Review and Electoral Law in a Global Perspective (This book fills a gap in constitutional law by examining the global trend towards the substantive constitutional adjudication of electoral legislation. It explores the premises on which this judicial scrutiny is grounded, seeks to explain the trend, and examines its consequences for representative democracy.) –use the code GLR AT5 to get 20% off
3. Mark Hill KC, Lina Papadopoulou, Islam, Religious Liberty and Constitutionalism in Europe (Today, the increase in the number of Muslims living in Europe and the prominence of Islamic belief pose questions not only for Europe’s religious traditions but also for its constitutional make up. This book examines these challenges within the legal and political framework of Europe.) – use the code GLR AT5 to get 20% off
4. András Jakab, Constitution-Making Procedure and Legitimacy-Maximization: On How Different Procedures Satisfy Different Conceptions of Legitimacy (The constitution-making procedure should not be considered as merely a tool to achieve the right content of a new constitutional document. The procedure itself can also have an effect on the actual social and political context that then enhances or hampers certain conceptions of legitimacy of the newly adopted Constitution.)
5. Deborah N. Pearlstein, The Democracy Effects of Legal Polarization: Movement Lawyering at the Dawn of the Unitary Executive (The article offers a case study of the structural consequences of theories of constitutional power engineered around circumstantial partisan interest.)
6. Miriam Seifter, Adam B. Sopko, Standing for Elections in State Courts (The essay describes other techniques that courts can use to deal with abusive or burdensome litigation without undermining the openness that is foundational to state judicial systems.)
7. Adrienne Stone, More than a Rule Book: Identity and the Australian Constitution (The aim of this essay is to identify and more fully describe the distinctiveness and in doing so provide an account of Australian ‘constitutional identity’.)
8. Paul Wragg, András Koltay, Global Perspectives on Press Regulation, Volume 2 (In this two-volume set, world-leading experts produce a rich, authoritative depiction of the world’s press, its freedom, and its limits.) – use the code GLR AT5 to get 20% off

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The pioneering student-run law review in Indonesia, Juris Gentium Law Review (JGLR), is now opening its doors to any discerning and interested law students, of any level of study, to publish their research findings on matters concerning International Law (both public and private) and Comparative Law in the form of articles, case commentaries, book reviews, or article reviews for its 2024 issue.
2. Scholars from diverse areas of study are invited to be part of, and provide their own contributions to the Special Issue of National Law School of India Review (NLSIR). Interdisciplinary approaches and comparative law papers are particularly welcome.
3. Call for Papers: UKCLA Early Career Workshop in Constitutional Law and Theory. This workshop will be held at the University of Bristol Law School on 1st July 2024. Participants will have the opportunity to present their research for feedback from our assembled expert panel of established academics.
4. Call for Special Issue Proposals: Global Constitutionalism aims to publish one special issue per year on a topic within the journal’s remit and welcomes proposals on special issues from scholars in law, politics, international relations, and political philosophy as well as related fields that address constitutional principles and norms on a global scale.
5. You can submit paper proposals for the 1.5-day interdisciplinary workshop: “Who rules over migrants? Autocratic elements in migration policies”, that will take place at the University of Leiden on 14 and 15 November 2024.
6. The Revista Derecho del Estado is still receiving contributions related to the way feminism, gender studies and queer theory transform legal academia and practice for its 60th number.
7. The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law still invites submissions on a closed list of topics in the field of comparative constitutional law.

Elsewhere Online

1. Aman Mehta, Breathing Life into the Right to Life: The Indian Supreme Court and the Right to be Free from the Adverse Effects of Climate Change (30 April 2024)
2. Marcin Szwed, Rebuilding the Rule of Law (29 April 2024)
3. Paolo Tamase, Unconstitutional Moments: The 2024 Attempts to Change the Philippine Constitution (29 April 2024)
4. Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Reviving Constitutional Reform in Saint Lucia: The Role of the Parliamentary Constitutional Review Committee (26 April 2024)
5. Amy Howe, Supreme Court appears likely to side with Trump on some presidential immunity (25 April 2024)
6. Parul Kumar, Abhayraj Naik, India’s New Constitutional Climate Right (25 April 2024)
7. Peter Čuroš, The Ides of March in Slovakia (23 April 2024)
8. Andrew Le Sueur, Human Rights Litigation in Jersey: A Constitutional Turn? (23 April 2024)
9. Lana Osei, Legislating Identity: A Critical Analysis of the Anti-LGBT Bills in Kenya and Ghana (23 April 2024)
10. Arvind P. Bhanu, Sambhav Sharma, Kavya Tyagi, Is NOTA Enough? Exploring Options for Amplifying Voter Dissatisfaction in India Elections (18 April 2024)