What’s New in Public Law

–Sandeep Suresh, Research Associate, Daksh India (Rule of Law Project)

In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in comparative 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 comparative public law blogosphere.

To submit relevant developments for our weekly feature on “What’s New in Comparative Public Law,” please email contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Indian Supreme Court ruled that access to justice is a fundamental right of citizens protected by Article 14 and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
2. The Colombian Constitutional Court ordered the national government to conduct a plebiscite for the approval of the peace accord (bilateral cease-fire agreement) between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the government.
3. A five-judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court announced that it will decide whether regional courts of appeal must be established to facilitate reduction of case backlog in the Indian courts.
4. The Obama administration requested that the U.S. Supreme Court rehear an important immigration case once the vacancy caused by Justice Scalia’s death is filled.
5. The Romanian Constitutional Court held that the popular constitutional amendment initiative on recognizing as “family” only the union between a man and a woman is constitutional [Submitted by Bianca Gutan, Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights Law, University of Sibiu, Faculty of Law].

In the News

1. Poland amended the recently introduced law on the constitutional court framework by removing the requirement for a two-thirds majority in order for a judgment to be valid.
2. The Israeli Parliament passed a law that allows it to impeach legislators for stirring racism or supporting armed struggle against the State.
3. The Union Government of India through its cabinet decision approved the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016.
4. Ireland will hold a constitutional referendum to decide whether Irish citizens living outside the country should be eligible to vote in presidential elections.
5. A Muslim women’s rights organization in India is training 30 women to be Qazis (Judges), who administer the civil code and personal laws of the Muslim community, with studies in quranic law, constitutional law and gender rights, in response to the mounting insistence for more women representation in such posts.

New Scholarship

1. Julius Yam, The Role of Courts in Hybrid Regimes and a Reconceptualisation of Separation of Powers: The Case of Filibuster in Hong Kong, 17 Australian Journal of Asian Law 1 (2016) (explaining how the judiciary of Hong Kong should alter its current approach to constitutional interpretation in light of Hong Kong’s constitutional order, hybrid government regime and political reality)
2. Manoj Mate, Globalization, Rights, and Judicial Review in the Supreme Court of India, 25 Washington International Law Journal 643 (2016) (examining the evolving role of the Supreme Court of India in an era of globalization by examining the Court’s decision-making in rights-based challenges to economic liberalization, privatization, and development policies over the past three decades).
3. Chimène I. Keitner, Authority and Dialogue: State and Official Immunity in Domestic and International Courts, in Concepts of International Law in Europe and the United States, Chiara Giorgetti and Guglielmo Verdirame (eds.) (forthcoming) (discussing the ongoing conversation about norms of state and official immunity among domestic and international courts).
4. Paul P. Craig, Brexit: A Drama in Six Acts, European Law Review (2016) (analysing the course of Brexit from the Bloomberg speech through to the referendum and beyond)
5. Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov, Temporary Legislation, Better Regulation and Experimentalist Governance: An Empirical Study (2016) (presenting the findings of an extensive multi-method empirical study that explored the relationship between temporary legislation, better regulation, and experimentalist governance)
6. Asem Khalil, Impulses from the Arab Spring on the Palestinian State-Building Process, in Constitutionalism, Human Rights, and Islam after the Arab Spring, Rainer Grote and Tilmann J. Roder (eds.) (2016) (assessing the Arab Spring’s impact on the Palestinians, in particular, in their quest for statehood and their state-building efforts, with particular emphasis on relevant constitutional law and institutions)
7. Anna Bryson and Kieran McEvoy, Women Lawyers and the Struggle for Change in Conflict and Transition, Australian Feminist Law Journal (2016) (examining the particular experiences of female “cause lawyers” in conflicted and transitional societies)

Calls for Papers and Announcements

1. The Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Faculty of Law is inviting applications for the post of a full-time and permanent Lecturer in English Common Law beginning from October 1, 2016. The successful candidate will teach the different areas of English common law within the degree course “International Legal Studies.” The successful candidate will be appointed for a limited period of two years with the possibility of permanent employment at a later stage. Applications should be submitted by August 12, 2016. For more information, please visit http://www.rewi.uni-jena.de.
2. Argumenta Journal of Law is accepting submissions for its upcoming edition. Interested authors must send their papers to argumenta@uenp.edu.br. Authors must submit original texts of Law Science and Humanities with the purpose of spreading their reflections of topics related to “Justice and Social Exclusion.”
3. The Jus Post Bellum Project is calling for research papers for the project conference on “Jus Post Bellum and the Justice of Peace” on September 29-30, 2016 in The Hague. Submissions must be sent to j.m.iverson@law.leidenuniv.nl by August 5, 2016 with an abstract of the paper and the author’s curriculum vitae.
4. The City University of New York Law Review is inviting submissions for Volume 20, Issue 1. The journal is committed to promoting social justice scholarship and invites submissions related to their social justice mission. The deadline for submitting manuscripts is August 1, 2016.
5. The AALS Section on Internet and Computer Law is inviting papers on “Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and Social Values” for its meeting on January 5, 2017. Interested authors must send the abstracts which should summarize their papers in roughly 1000 words to derekbambauer@email.arizona.edu before September 15, 2016.
6. The Goettingen Journal of International Law has released its latest issue – Volume 7, Issue 1. This special issue is on the “Exercise of Public Authority by International Organizations.” Contributions to this issue were made by scholars who participated in workshops on this topic at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg.
7. Melbourne Law School (MLS) at the University of Melbourne invites applications for two Postdoctoral Fellowships to participate in Professor Adrienne Stone’s Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship program on “Balancing Diversity and Social Cohesion in Democratic Constitutions.”

Elsewhere Online

1. Wojciech Sadurski and Maximilian Steinbeis, What is Going on in Poland is an Attack against Democracy, Verfassungsblog
2. Andrew Murray, AG Saugmandsgaard Øe on Mass Data Retention: No Clear Victory for Privacy Rights, Verfassungsblog
3. Rajeev Dhavan, Handbook of the Indian Constitution review: A Site of Struggle, The Indian Express
4. Ozan Varol, Turkey’s Reichstag Fire, The Huffington Post
5. Chris Stephen, Libya’s latest draft constitution: Concise summary, ConstitutionNet
6. Marsolo, How the Judiciary Contributes to the Growth of Government, American Thinker