19 April 2020
The State of Emergency Virus
The current pandemic is said to be the worst health crisis the world has experienced for a century. Beyond causing thousands to die and millions to lose their jobs, it has also caused more than ever before governments to declare a state of emergency and, thus, to considerably broaden their own competencies. Previous experience, however, has shown that governments do not use their additional powers to save lives but, rather, to make themselves better off. Considering that more than half of the world’s democracies have declared a state of emergency, the rule of law will be subject to a number of dangers in the following months. Continue reading >>
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15 April 2020
The Constitutionalized State of Emergency
The late Giovanni Sartori once said that we lacked a general theory of dictatorship. It is very likely that we are also short of a theory of emergency. As the current pandemic has come to show us, not only we still have difficulties to include emergency into our conception of constitutional law; we seem to differ on what emergency means and necessitates and on what should be its place in the functioning of the democratic State. Continue reading >>
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10 April 2020
Covid-19 and Derogations Before the European Court of Human Rights
Many argue that derogations, permitted under many human rights instruments, provide a useful framework for assessing whether any human rights infringements that arise from emergency provisions adopted in response to Covid-19 are justified. Drawing on jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) in relation to Northern Ireland, this post argues that it is likely that the vast majority of cases exploring derogation will be found in a government’s failure. Continue reading >>
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06 April 2020
Canada the Good?
Canada is in almost full emergency mode in its bid to flatten the pandemic curve. But so far the federal government has not declared a federal state of emergency in terms of the Emergencies Act (1985), although it has discussed publicly the pros and cons of taking this step and has been urged to do so on the basis that such a declaration would enable a nationwide testing program. There are four main reasons for this hesitation to declare a national state of emergency. Continue reading >>
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02 April 2020
Against the Apocalyptic Swan Song
Gloomy future scenarios are currently popular. Hardly a day goes by without predictions of the demise of the EU, a spiral of nationalism or the path to an authoritarian, xenophobic surveillance state. However, in the current competition to outbid disaster scenarios, we tend to forget that political developments are just as little inevitable and without alternatives as crisis response measures. The choice between alternatives still exists and is more important today than ever. Continue reading >>
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01 April 2020
Governing Through Fear in France
The present pandemic affects our ways of life and acts as a magnifying glass: It helps us to see the main features of our political and legal systems better. In France, the Act of Parliament from March, 23 reveals a well-known feature of the French fifth Republic: Parliament is not considered as a major political institution. Furthermore, it reveals yet again that the state of emergency has become common since 2015. Continue reading >>
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26 March 2020
When the Coronavirus Crisis Turns into a Crisis of Democracy
The ongoing political crisis in Israel raises the question of whether the government acts fully in good faith when deciding on measures to fight the spread of COVID-19. The current situation, in which the parliament is hindered from functioning and in which emergency regulations directly benefit the personal situation of the current Prime Minister, raises doubts about this. Continue reading >>24 March 2020
An Election in the Time of Pandemic
In Poland, the Law and Justice (PiS) government has opted not to use its constitutional power to declare a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 spreading. As Wojciech Sadurski explained, its motive is simple: not to postpone the Presidential election in Poland and thus increase the chances of the President-in-Office to win the second term. The question is whether the pandemic may cause invalidity of the election. If the answer is yes, as I suggest, the problem is who should be the judge of it. The chamber of the Polish Supreme Court that is empowered by law to do so does not give an ‘appearance of independence’, following the PiS’s so-called ‘reform’ of the judiciary. Continue reading >>12 March 2020
Coronavirus Emergency and Public Law Issues: An Update on the Italian Situation
The emergency caused by the “new” Coronavirus disease (that we discussed here) reached a new peak in Italy in the last few days, since cases have tripled compared to just a couple of days ago. Italy is now the second most affected country after China. This situation induced Italian public authorities to take new, stricter measures to try to contain the expansion of the virus. From a constitutional law perspective, the Coronavirus sheds light on the need to reconsider Italy’s “emergency constitution” . Continue reading >>29 January 2020
‘Urban Citizenship’ in a Multipolar World
On 23 January 2020, the government of the People’s Republic of China imposed a quarantine on the central Chinese city of Wuhan, population eleven million. Stephen Minas reinforces the cautionary trend in this debate over the merits and prospects of ‘urban citizenship’. Continue reading >>
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