—Wilson Seraine da Silva Neto, PhD Candidate in Economic Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra.
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
- U.S. Supreme Court has kept a block on President Joe Biden’s student-loan relief program that would extend payment periods and effectively forgive outstanding debts of $12,000 or less.
- The Supreme Court of India protected from arrest a private news channel anchor who is facing a court-monitored probe in a case on mobile phone interviews of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
- Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has issued an interim order suspending planned changes by the government to the organization of religion classes in schools, which were due to go into effect at the start of the new school year next week.
- The Constitutional Court of South Korea ruled on concerning the constitutionality of several key provisions related to the nation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, impacting the future of the country’s climate policy. The Court says that part of the country’s climate law does not conform with protecting the constitutional rights of future generations and it mandated that the government develop concrete plans for emission reductions through 2049, addressing climate campaigners’ concerns that current measures violate their rights.
- The Supreme Court of India has said a woman is the sole owner of her ‘streedhan,’ which includes gold ornaments and other assets her parents gave at the time of marriage. The court reportedly clarified that after a divorce, her father has no authority to demand the return of those gifts from her former in-laws.
- The Supreme Court of Israel head rejects Levin plan to make conservative judge chief justice for a year: Acting Court President Vogelman slams justice minister’s proposal, accuses him of ‘harming the proper functioning of the justice system’ during a time of crisis.
In the News
- Social media giant X said it expects Brazilian Supreme Court to order it to shut down, as a pitched legal battle plays out over compliance with local laws and owner Elon Musk’s insistence the platform is being punished for resisting censorship.
- The Constitutional Court of Georgia has begun reviewing the claims filed by the country’s President Salome Zurabishvili, opposition party deputies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) regarding the annulment of the “Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence”.
- The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, often considered the nation’s most conservative, said Louisiana can end a 32-year-old consent decree meant to ensure a fair chance for Blacks to be elected to the state’s Supreme Court.
- The DW media company plans to appeal the 2023 conviction of reporter Bülent Mumay for publishing supposedly secret information belonging to an Istanbul construction company owner at Turkey’s highest court, after a lower court upheld his 20-month suspended jail sentence last week.
- Republican officials in 24 states asked the Supreme Court to halt a Biden administration effort to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas methane, adding to a series of emergency appeals challenging environmental regulations.
New Scholarship
- Angioletta Sperti, Constitutional Courts, Media and Public Opinion (2023) (The author analyses the recent developments in the institutional communication of several constitutional and supreme courts, focusing on the transformation of their relationship with media and public opinion and its consequences regarding the courts’ role and legitimacy)
- EFTA Court, The EFTA Court: Developing the EEA over Three Decades (2024) (This collection of essays, written by members of the EFTA Court and external experts, reviews the successes and shortcomings of the Court, its interface with EU law, and its future development) (Discount Code: GLR BD8)
- Urška Šadl, Good Judgment: The European Court of Justice as a Context-Conscious Lawmaker (2024) (This book develops concepts and methods for a systematic and legally informative analysis of the interpretive tools and procedural means of the European Court of Justice and its free movement case law) (Discount Code: GLR BD8)
- Ngoc Son Bui, Mara Malagodi, Asian Comparative Constitutional Law, Volume 2: Constitutional Amendments (2024) (This is the second in a 4-volume set that provides the definitive account of the major issues of comparative constitutional law in Asian jurisdictions. Volume 2 looks at constitutional amendments and covers 17 Asian jurisdictions including: Bangladesh, Cambodia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand) (Discount Code: GLR BD8)
- Wilson Seraine Neto, Wine (Historical-Competition) Law: The Appellation of Origin as a mechanism for Competition and Consumer protection (at Portuguese) (2024) (Initially using historical resources, which reveal the economic regulation of wine (and a concern for competition) as far back as the Romans, the article aim is to show the importance of the Appellation of Origin institute in promoting a (globalized) wine market which, by protecting consumers from fraud and counterfeiting and safeguards producers and traders from acts of unfair competition)
- David Sobreira, Taming Justice: How Courts Die and What Can Be Done to Save Them (2024) (this work aims to evaluate a particular strategy used by authoritarian agents seeking to entrench themselves in power permanently: court capture. The objective is to assess how such acts occur and what can be done to prevent them from materializing)
Calls for Papers and Announcements
- The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research invites you to the II Legal SciComm Conference: Research and Practice that will be held on 12 November 2024, at Colégio da Trindade. The conference will be hybrid to allow participation by researchers who are unable to travel. Abstract submission Deadline: 10 October 2024.
- The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research invites you to the Webinar ‘On 30 years of the UNIDROIT Principles on International Commercial Contracts’ that will be held on 06 December 2024.
- The National Constitution Center invites you to a conversation with the Honorable Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on releasing his latest book, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law”. The event will take place on 17 September 2024, in person and online.
- The Faculty of Law, University of Oxford invites you to the “Bonavero Annual Lecture: Constitutionalism at Work. Navigating Knowledge in the Courtroom” with Professor Susanne Baer from Humboldt University Berlin. The event will take place on 03 October 2024
- The Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge invites you to the panel talk “Access to justice in legal advice deserts…(EU) migrant women, the law and Great Yarmouth” that will be held on 27 September 2024. The event will be a conversation with the authors of “Low Paid Eu Migrant Workers, the House, the Street, the Town” which offers an in-depth exploration of the lives of EU migrant workers in the UK following Brexit and COVID-19
Elsewhere Online
- Raphaël Cecchi, Thailand: Constitutional Court’s rulings shake Thai politics, prolonging political instability risks, Credendo
- The Americas, Nicolás Maduro digs in with the help of a pliant Supreme Court, The Economist
- Adam Feldman, Which Justice Writes the Most Important Decisions on the Supreme Court?, Empirical SCOTUS
- Patrick Gathara, How Kenya’s constitution has transformed the country, The New Humanitarian
- Jason Willick, Prosecutors test the Supreme Court’s limits on Trump and Jan. 6, The New York Times
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