What’s New in Public Law

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—Wilson Seraine da Silva Neto, PhD Candidate in Economic Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra.

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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 Iran Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence issued against Kurdish political prisoner Pakhshan Azizi.
2. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, a case that revolves around a Texas law requiring websites to verify the ages of people seeking adult content, such as pornography.
3. The Portugal Constitutional Court has rejected a potential referendum on the future of short-term holiday rentals (alojamento local) in residential blocks in Lisbon.
4. The South Korea Constitutional Court held the second hearing for the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was arrested the previous day over his martial law imposition.
5. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a law banning TikTok may take effect this weekend.
6. The Brazil Supreme Court prohibits former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro from attending the inauguration of American President-elect Donald Trump. Bolsonaro’s passport is seized for alleged involvement in a coup d’état.

In the News

1. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Maryland’s handgun licensing regime, as well as a pair of cases seeking to hold oil and gas companies responsible for damage caused by climate change.
2. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrested by anti-corruption investigators after weekslong showdown. It was the first time such an action has been taken against a sitting president.
3. Justice Krishnan Vinod Chandran sworn in as India Supreme Court judge.
4. The Attorney General’s Office asked the Colombia Constitutional Court to declare an “Unconstitutional State of Affairs” due to the health crisis.
5. President of Mozambique, Daniel Chapo, said, in his first speech as head of state, that political dialogue has already begun with the reforms planned for the transformation of the Constitutional Council into a Constitutional Court.

New Scholarship

1. Alexander Orakhelashvili, Strengthening the Resilience of the German Federal Constitutional Court (2025) (discussing recent German legislation regarding the authority of German Federal Constitutional Court)
2. Madhav Khosla and Vicki C. Jackson (Editors), Redefining Comparative Constitutional Law (2025) (examining central questions in global constitutionalism through engagement with the work of Professor Mark Tushnet)
3. Renato Costa and Bruno Santos Cunha, Raízes do Federalismo Australiano (2025) (translating the most emblematic speeches of the father of Australian federalism, Sir Henry Parkes, and the text of the Federated Australia Constitution of 1901)
4. William Aceves, Critical Constitutional Law and the Alito Palimpsest (2025) (using an innovative metaphor—the palimpsest—and a provocative philosophical tradition—genealogy—this article aims to generate a new theory of critical constitutional law)
5. Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr., András Koltay and, Charlotte Garden (Editors), Disinformation, Misinformation, and Democracy (2025) (exploring and evaluating different regulatory approaches for addressing the dis- and misinformation across traditional and social media and the threat to democracy)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research has opened the applications for the post-doctoral programme (2025-2026).
2. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research invites you to the “Meeting of Doctoral Students in Economic and Financial Law” that will be held on 21 January 2025.
3. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research invites you to the “Congress Commemorating 25 years of the Drug Law in Portugal” that will be held on 24 January 2025.
4. Institutions in Brazil and Portugal invite you to the III Luso-Brazilian Congress of Philosophy of Law that will be held between 27 and 29 March 2025 in Teresina, Brazil. The deadline for registering and submitting papers is 17 March 2025.
5. The University of Oxford invites you to the Lecture “The Mystery of the Holocaust” by Judge Theodor Meron that will take place on 27 January.

Elsewhere Online

1. Cristiano Lima-Strong, TikTok races toward a ban as Supreme Court — and Trump — weigh its fate, The Washington Post
2. Choe Sang-Hun, With South Korea in Crisis, Eight Justices Will Decide President’s Fate, The New York Times
3. Yi-Li Lee, Shao-Man Lee, Chien-Chih Lin and Vivianne Yen-Ching Weng, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court at Risk: Political Maneuvering to Erode Judicial Independence, ConstitutionNet
4. Jean-Christophe Laurence, L’indépendance, à quel prix?, La Presse
5. Ruth Marcus, The Supreme Court’s ‘no’ to Trump was dangerously close to ‘yes’, The Washington Post