1st Edition
Routledge Handbook of Law and the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic not only ravaged human bodies but also had profound and possibly enduring effects on the health of political and legal systems, economies and societies. Almost overnight, governments imposed the severest restrictions in modern times on rights and freedoms, elections, parliaments and courts. Legal and political institutions struggled to adapt, creating a catalyst for democratic decline and catastrophic increases in poverty and inequality. This handbook analyses the global pandemic response through five themes: governance and democracy; human rights; the rule of law; science, public trust and decision making; and states of emergency and exception. Containing 12 thematic commentaries and 25 chapters on countries of diverse size, wealth and experience of COVID-19, it represents the combined effort of more than 50 contributors, including leading scholars and rising voices in the fields of constitutional, international, public health, human rights and comparative law, as well as political science, and science and technology studies. Taking stock after the onset of global emergency, this book provides essential analysis for politicians, policy-makers, jurists, civil society organisations, academics, students and practitioners at both national and international level on the best, and most concerning, practices adopted in response to COVID-19 – and key insights into how states and multilateral institutions should reform, adapt and prepare for future emergencies.
PART I: Governance and Democracy
1 The Pandemic and the Future of Global Democracy 5
Tom Gerald Daly
2 COVID-19 Vaccines and Global Governance:
How Structural Factors Dictate Procurement and Vitiate Patient Autonomy 18
Jerome Amir Singh
3 Accountability through Dialogue: New Zealand’s Experience during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic 31
Dean R Knight
4 China and COVID-19: An Archetypal Legal and Governmental Response to an Exceptional Challenge 43
Jacques deLisle and Shen Kui
5 (Un)Governing: The COVID-19 Response in the UK 60
Joelle Grogan
6 COVID-19, the United States and Evidence-Based Politics 72
Mark A Graber
7 Democracy in the Time of COVID-19: Pandemic Management, Public Trust and Democratic Consolidation in Singapore 84
Shirin Chua and Jaclyn L Neo
PART II: Human Rights
8 Human Rights – the Essential Frame of Reference in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 101
Alice Donald and Philip Leach
9 Assessing Human Rights Compliance during COVID-19 117
Martin Scheinin
10 Going Beyond the Rhetoric: Taking Human Rights Seriously in the Post-COVID-19 World 123
Stéphanie Dagron
11 Finland’s Success in Combatting COVID-19: Mastery, Miracle or Mirage? 130
Martin Scheinin
12 A Crisis of Rights and Democracy in India 143
Thulasi K Raj
13 Dealing with the Pandemic and Social Unrest: A Stress Test for Colombian Institutions 156
Julián Gaviria-Mira and Esteban Hoyos-Ceballos
14 Thailand’s Response to COVID-19: Human Rights in Decline and More Social Turbulence 168
Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang and Rawin Leelapatana
15 Political Opportunism and Pandemic Mismanagement in Kenya 181
Tara Imalingat, Nerima Were and Allan Maleche
PART III: The Rule of Law
16 The Rule of Law as the Perimeter of Legitimacy for COVID-19 Responses 201
Joelle Grogan and Julinda Beqiraj
17 Baselining COVID-19: How Do We Assess the Success or Failure of the Responses of Governments to the Pandemic? 214
Hans Petter Graver
18 Brazil: COVID-19, Illiberal Politics and the Rule of Law 225
Thomas Bustamante and Emílio Peluso Neder Meyer
19 Dealing with COVID-19 in Sweden: Choosing a Different Path 237
Iain Cameron and Anna Jonsson Cornell
20 Turkey: Pandemic Governance and Executive Aggrandisement 248
Başak Çalı and Emre Turkut
21 The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pretext for Expanding Power in Hungary 259
Kriszta Kovács
22 The Politicisation of Health and Threats to the Rule of Law in Pakistan 271
Shaheera Syed and Nadia Tariq-Ali
Part IV: Science, Public Trust and Decision-Making 285
23 A Stress Test for Politics: A Comparative Perspective on Policy Responses to COVID-19 289
Sheila Jasanoff and Stephen Hilgartner
24 Open Science, Data Sharing and Pandemic Preparedness 299
Ciara Staunton
25 Taiwan’s Effective Pandemic Control with Dialogic Constitutionalism 311
Wen-Chen Chang and Chun-Yuan Lin
26 Public Health, Technology and Social Context in Rwanda’s COVID-19 Response 324
Denis Bikesha and Allan T Moore
27 Germany and COVID-19: Expertise and Public Political Deliberation 336
Anna Katharina Mangold
28 The Rationality of South Africa’s State of Disaster During COVID-19 347
Melodie Labuschaigne and Ciara Staunton
29 Iran’s COVID-19 Response: Who Calls the Shots? 359
Marzieh Tofighi Darian
Part V States of Emergency and Exception 371
30 Responding to COVID-19 with States of Emergency: Reflections and Recommendations for Future Health Crises 375
Cassandra V Emmons
31 COVID-19 and Emergency Powers in Western European Democracies: Trends and Issues 388
Arianna Vedaschi and Chiara Graziani
32 Exposing Inequalities: The Experience of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples During COVID-19 Emergencies 399
Rasha Al Saba and Samrawit Gougsa
33 When Emergency Is Permanent: Egypt’s Legal Response to COVID-19 411
Ahmed Ellaboudy
34 The COVID-19 Emergency: Malaysia’s Fragile Constitutional Democracy 423
R Rueban Balasubramaniam
35 The French Management of COVID-19: Normalisation of Regimes of Exception and Degradation of the Rule of Law 434
Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche
36 The Philippines under Lockdown: Continuing Executive Dominance and an Unclear Pandemic Response 445
Maria Ela L Atienza
37 All Bets on the Executive(s)! The Australian Response to COVID-19 457
Marco Rizzi and Tamara Tulich
BEYOND THE PANDEMIC 471
38 Lessons for a ‘Post-Pandemic’ Future 473
Joelle Grogan and Alice Donald
Index
Biography
Alice Donald is Associate Professor of Human Rights Law, School of Law, Middlesex University, London, UK.
Joelle Grogan is Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Middlesex University, London, UK, and Research Fellow, CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest, Hungary.
"This book provides an exceptional comparative account of how institutions of constitutional democracies can either act as bulwarks or be threatened in emergency times. The COVID-19 pandemic will leave an enduring mark on the world’s constitutional history and this volume provides intriguing critical readings of the facts and governmental responses related to it."
Judge Luís Roberto Barroso, Justice of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil
"This excellent collection of essays both addresses and transcends the legal issues raised by responses to the pandemic, both within particular countries and globally. The health care crisis pushed other concerns to the margins of our political radar and the legal mechanisms adopted have not received the attention that trends in response to 9/11 did. Since the pandemic affected the exercise of political and legal power in ways that may have long term consequences for democracy, populism, authoritarianism and the role of scientific knowledge in our policy decisions, this book is an invaluable interdisciplinary resource."
David Dyzenhaus, University Professor of Law and Philosophy and Albert Abel Chair, University of Toronto
"Grogan and Donald’s edited volume makes a spectacular contribution to ongoing discussions regarding COVID-19 and the law. Contributions from leading thinkers provide fresh theoretical insights and empirical observations regarding the pandemic’s impacts on who exercises power and how, which should be read by everyone concerned with the rule of law in a post-COVID-19 future."
Alicia Ely Yamin, Senior Fellow on Global Health and Rights, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics, Harvard Law School
