What’s New in Public Law

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—Anubhav Kumar, Advocate & Researcher, Supreme Court of India 

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In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in public law. “Developments” may include links to news, high court decisions, new or recent scholarly books, 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. Indian Supreme Court strikes down caste-based discrimination in prisons, orders overhaul
2. Romanian Constitutional Court rejects presidential candidacy of far-right MEP.
3. Supreme Court rejects appeal from ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli
4. In major relief to govt, SC strikes down 2022 ruling on defection clause under Article 63-A
5. Constitutional Court clarifies CGT in multi-tier trust arrangements
6. Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Appeal in Texas Abortion Case

In the News

1. Brazil’s supreme court reinstates X after Elon Musk agrees to court orders.
2. President Duda refers government’s constitutional court overhaul to constitutional court.
3. Kenneth Law seeks top-court standing on homicide charges.
4. Prakashman Singh Raut  sworn in as the new Chief Justice of Nepal’s Supreme Court
5. Holy Movement Under Armenian Cleric Heads To Constitutional Court With His Supporters

New Scholarship

1. Luís Roberto Barroso & Richard Albert , The 2023 International Review of Constitutional Reform (2024) (4th edition of The International Review of Constitutional Reform containing 90 jurisdictional reports. Each report explains and contextualizes events in constitutional reform over the previous year in a given jurisdiction. Constitutional reform is defined broadly to include constitutional amendment, constitutional dismemberment, constitutional mutation, constitutional replacement and other events in constitutional reform, including the judicial review of constitutional amendments.)
2. Lisa Burton Crawford, The problem of complex legislation (2024) (This article defends the orthodox position that the public ought to be able to understand legislation, or at least reasonably so. That is necessary to enable people to plan their lives in a way that properly reflects the role of legislation in contemporary administrative states.)
3. M.P Ram Mohan & Sai Murlidhar K, Tests to determine employer-employee relationships in India: looking towards the future? (2024) (examines whether the burden of proof in determining the existence of employer-employee relationships requires modification. It then dissects the efficacy of the current multi-factor test in emerging platforms and gig economies by looking at the standard form contract signed by a popular food delivery platform with its delivery partners in India. Finally, the article explores the ability of the newly enacted labour codes, particularly the Code on Social Security 2020, to address the classification conundrum and its consistency with precedents.)
4. Peter Dunne & Alan Brownn, Trans Parenthood in The UK: The “Unanswered Questions” of The Mcconnell Litigation (2024) (This article considers three “unanswered questions” raised by R. (McConnell) v Registrar General for England and Wales (AIRE Centre Intervening) [2020] EWCA Civ. 559, which held that a trans man (with a Gender Recognition Certificate) who gave birth must be registered as “mother” on his child’s birth certificate. This article considers these questions to clearly situate McConnell within the context of the UK’s legal regimes concerning access to fertility treatment, gender recognition and legal parenthood in cases involving assisted reproduction. The article argues that clearly establishing the current legal position will provide the proper context to facilitate any subsequent legal reforms.)
5. Mark Tushnet, Why we should think about democratic frontsliding as well as democratic backsliding (2024) (Argues that we have been worrying about democratic backsliding – movement toward autocratic rule in nations that we thought were stably democratic. Our attention to backsliding may have distracted us, though, from another important phenomenon – front-sliding, so to speak. If backsliding is a move from democracy toward autocracy, frontsliding is a move from autocracy to democracy.)

Calls for Papers and Announcement

1. The Feminist Legal Studies (FLS) is looking for new people to join their wonderful editorial board! If you have an interest in feminist socio-legal research and a passion for building feminist publishing spaces, please consider applying. Deadline is Friday 8^th November 5 PM. Apply now
2. The USC centre for Law and Philosophy calls for abstract for a fascinating conference online on “Philosophy of emotions meets philosophy of law” to be held on April 9, 2025. The last date to submit the abstract is November 18, 2024. More details here.
3. The Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies and Melbourne Centre for Commercial Law on October 16, 2024, are hosting a special lecture from Judge Duro Sessa, President of the International Association of Judges and Justice of Supreme Court of Croatia on “The Future of Judicial Independence” which will be chaired by The Hon. Tony Pagone AM KC. One can register here.
4. The Electoral Integrity Project is inviting applications for their yearly Fellowship programme which is designed for academics and practitioners at all stages of their career to engage in electoral integrity research, with the support of the EIP, other fellows, and members of their Advisory Board. More details here.
5. The Institute for Comparative federalism- Eurac Research invites applications for 2025 Winter School on Federalism and Governance with an aim to provide a comprehensive analysis of vertical and horizontal power structures, explore case studies from the European Union, Africa, Asia, and North America, and address key issues like asymmetric federalism, policy impacts, and more. Apply here.

Elsewhere Online

1. Nafiz Ahmed, The reason we need a new constitution, The Daily Star
2. Eric Segall, The Roberts Court’s Republican Party Constitution, Dorf on Law.
3. Anmol Jain, The Bombay High Court Dismisses the Ministry of Truth, VerfBlog
4. Nidhi Jha & Rudraksh Lakra , Eyes Wide Shut : the Supreme Court’s refusal to consider the challenge to Arms Exports to Israel, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
5. Thomas Mulder, Evacuations In Armed Conflict: A Fine Line Between A Life-Saving Measure And Forced Displacement, EJIL Talk
6. Aparna Bhatnagar, Echoes of Dissent: ECtHR rulings pave the way for evolving limits on free speech, Oxford Human Rights Hub.
7. Rishabh Shrivastava, The Climate clean-up debate, The Analysis
8. Barrister Murtaza Wahab, Why Pakistan needs a constitutional court, Constitution-Net