What’s New in Public Law

–Simon Drugda, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford (UK)

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 contact.iconnect@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts

1. The Constitutional Court of Moldova suspended the powers of the President, who kept blocking the govt’s choice of new ministers for a reshuffle. The PM or Speaker of the Parliament, will exercise office in interim (pursuant to Art. 91 of the Constitution) to carry out the appointments.
2. The outgoing President of the Constitutional Court of Austria criticized the country’s strict legislation on asylum and security measures.
3. The Constitutional Court of South Korea upheld a century-old law that restricts the awarding of massage licences to the visually impaired. The Court held that professional massage services should be the preserve of the blind as they have fewer job opportunities.
4. Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts announced that the Supreme Court will be tackling sexual harassment. The initiative will focus on protecting judges, law clerks and other court employees from, as Roberts wrote in his annual report on the judiciary.
5. The Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that the Parliament had failed to hold President Jacob Zuma to account, and must launch proceedings that could remove him from office.

In the News

1. The President of Uganda signed into law a bill lifting the presidential age limit (of 75 years).
2. The Israeli legislature (Knesset) passed an amendment to a Basic Law on the status of land in the city of Jerusalem, requiring an absolute two-thirds majority vote to cede land in Jerusalem to a foreign party.
3. The Justice Ministry of Israel drafts a legislation to force Palestinian plaintiffs from the West Bank to petition a district court on building and land disputes, instead of the High Court of Justice.
4. A district court in Norway upheld a govt plan for more oil exploration in the Arctic, dismissing a lawsuit by environmentalists invoking the right to a healthy environment.
5. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) agreed to push for a constitutional change to allow the expropriation of land without compensation.
6. Myanmar’s civilian President called in an Independence Day speech for a reform of the military-drafted Constitution and for justice for all recognized minorities under a federal system.

New Scholarship

1. Amanda L. Tyler, Habeas Corpus in Wartime: From the Tower of London to Guantanamo Bay (2017) (presenting a comprehensive account of the legal and political history of habeas corpus in wartime in the Anglo-American legal tradition)
2. Pranoto Iskandar, Indigenizing Constitutionalism: A Critical Reading of ‘Asian Constitutionalism’ (2017) 2 Oxford U Comparative L Forum (situating the emerging theoretical debate on a distinct model of constitutionalism in Indonesia and the surrounding countries as the most current rebellious streak against the liberal constitutionalism)
3. Arun K. Thiruvengadam, The Constitution of India: A Contextual Analysis (2017) (providing an overview of the Indian Constitution in its socio-political context)
4. George H. Gadbois, Jr., Supreme Court of India: The Beginnings (2017) (studying the role played by the Federal and later Supreme Court in the Indian polity between 1937-1964)
5. Abhinav Chandrachud, Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India (2017) (examining the right to free speech in the legal and political history of India, from the British period to the present)
6. Uladzislau Belavusau and Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias (eds.), Law and Memory: Towards Legal Governance of History (2017) (exploring the nature and role of legal engagement into historical memory in selected national law, European and international law)
7. Anthea Roberts, Paul B. Stephan, Pierre-Hugues Verdier and Mila Versteeg (eds.), Comparative International Law (2017) (mapping the cross-country differences in international legal norms in various fields of international law and their application and interpretation in different geographic regions)

Call for Papers and Announcements

1. Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Faculty of Law invites submissions for n the occasion of the inauguration of the Central and Eastern European Regional Chapter of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) on the theme: “The Power of Public Law in the 21st Century.” Interested scholars are asked to submit an abstract no longer than 500 words by January 10, 2018, by filling out this form.
2. The Széchenyi István University, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences invites submissions to a conference on “Media and Democracy Law, Politics, Pluralism and Society in Central and Eastern Europe.” The deadline for applications is January 20, 2018.
3. The Central European University’s Legal Studies Department invites applications for two 12-month fixed-term Postdoctoral/Research Fellowships as part of its Demise of Constitutionalism Project funded by CEU’s Intellectual Themes Initiative. Applications are welcome continuously until the fellowships are awarded to suitable candidates.
4. The Journal of the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (JOxCSLS) invites submissions for its 2018 issue. The deadline for submission is February 18, 2018.
5. The Stanford Program in Law and Society (SPLS) at Stanford Law School invites submissions for its Fifth Conference for Junior Researchers on “Law in Everyday Life.” The deadline for abstracts is February 5, 2018.
6. The Italian Association of Comparative Law (AIDC) invites submissions for its Sixth Young Scholars Conference on “New Topics and Methods in Comparative Law Research,” to be held on May 25-26, 2018 at University of Bergamo. The deadline for abstracts is January 16, 2018.

Elsewhere Online

1. David R. Cameron, After the election and still divided, Catalonia needs to speak to Madrid with one voice, Yale MacMillan Center
2. Aleksandra Gliszczyńska–Grabias, Law and Memory, Verfassungsblog
3. Uladzislau Belavusau, Rule of Law in Poland: Memory Politics and Belarusian Minority, Verfassungsblog
4. Douglas McDonald-Norman, Review: Abhinav Chandrachud’s Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India, Law and Other Things
5. Swapnil Tripathi, The Unconstitutionality of Prohibiting Differential Pricing, Indian Constitutional Law and Philosophy
6. Noah Feldman, Manafort’s Lawsuit Finds Trump in a Strange Spot, Bloomberg View
7. Amrit Cheng, Ohio’s Voter Purge Goes to the Supreme Court: What You Need to Know, ACLU blog