Emergency Law Responses to Covid-19
Overview
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic on 11 March 2020. This global health crisis demanded a quick, decisive, and efficient response by governments to protect lives, curb the spread of the virus and prevent public health systems from being overwhelmed. Governments in many countries have triggered emergency legal frameworks to disable some ordinary(democratic) procedures and set aside standard political and legal accountability mechanisms as part of their Covid-19 response.
A state of emergency is the special legal regime of powers and rules that is brought into operation when a country is facing a grave threat. Normal laws are often circumvented under a state of emergency, and special and extraordinary measures are enacted. Covid-19 responses have indicated different ways of institutionalising an emergency response and this project interrogates the legal bases for emergency measures adopted, particularly in conflict-affected settings. Three main approaches to enacting emergency measures in response to Covid-19 were identified:
(1) rely on constitutional provisions that permit emergency approaches;
(2) interpret existing legislation to provide the basis for emergency measures or adopt new legislation; and
(3) legally ambiguous approaches that have a less explicit legal basis, such as executive measures that lack (or appear to lack) a specific legal grounding.
This project also examines the ways in which, and consequences of, relying on counter-terrorism legislation as a response to the pandemic.
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Select Media Contributions
Molloy, S. with, Bell, C., Houlihan, E., Welikala, A., and Zulueta-Fülscher, K. (2021), Emergency Law Responses and Conflict-Affected States in Transition, Verfassungsblog
Molloy, S., and De Vries, F. (2020) From anti-terrorism legislation to COVID emergency laws: Can sunset clauses live up to their promise? Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Molloy, S., Smith, R., and Farran, S. (2020) ‘Covid-19 and the Right to Water: The Impact of Handwashing Guidance in Atolls with Limited Running Water’, Opinio Juris
Molloy, S. (2020) ‘Human Rights in Africa in the Context of Covid-19’ I-CONnect
Molloy, S. (2020) ‘Sunset Clauses in historical and contemporary usage’, Prospect Magazine
Molloy, S. (2020) ‘Covid-19 and Sunset Clauses’, PSRP Blog
Molloy, S. (2020) ‘Covid-19, Emergency Legislation and Sunset Clauses’, UK Constitutional Law Blog
Molloy, S. (2020) ‘Covid-19 and Derogations Before the European Court of Human Rights’ Verfassungsblog