1st Edition

States of Emergency and Human Rights Protection The Theory and Practice of the Visegrad Countries

292 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

292 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

292 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Emergencies are ubiquitous in 21st-century societal discourses. From the rise of emergency pronouncements in the United States since 9/11 accompanied by the associated violations of fundamental rights, through talks of ‘crises’ in the EU in relation to the economy, Putin’s occupation of Crimea (as recently amplified by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine) or refugees, to the long-neglected looming... Read more

List of contributors xi

States of emergency and fundamental rights in books and in action: The Visegrad countries and the COVID-19 pandemic 1

MONIKA FLORCZAK-WĄTOR, FRUZSINA GARDOS-OROSZ, JAN MALIŘ, AND MAX STEUER

PART I

Models of states of emergency in Visegrad countries 15

1 States of emergency and COVID-19: Czech Republic 17

JAN MALIŘ AND JAN GRINC

2 States of emergency in Hungary 43

ZOLTAN SZENTE

3 States of emergency in Poland: A model under construction 55

MICHAŁ ZIOŁKOWSKI

4 Models of states of emergency in Slovakia and their political context: ‘We’ll manage … somehow?’ 78

MAX STEUER

PART II

Models of human rights protection in Visegrad countries 101

5 Fundamental rights limitations in states of emergency: The Czech pattern 103

JAN MALIŘ AND JAN GRINC

6 The normative standards of human rights protection in normalcy and in emergency in Hungary 124

FRUZSINA GARDOS-OROSZ

7 Human rights in states of emergency: Constitutional principles and their application in the Republic of Poland 145

MONIKA FLORCZAK-WĄTOR

8 A widening gap? Fundamental rights and states of emergency in Slovakia 164

MAX STEUER AND RADKA VICENOVA

PART III

Restrictions on human rights in times of COVID-19 pandemic 185

9 Emergency as a pretext for restricting political rights: The Hungarian autocratic regime at work 187

ZOLTAN SZENTE

10 Restrictions on freedom of assembly: The case of Poland 200

PIOTR TULEJA

11 Disproportionate restrictions on freedom of movement:

The Slovak Republic during the COVID-19 pandemic 218

KAMIL BARANIK

12 Restrictions imposed on the right to education in the Czech Republic due to COVID-19 pandemic 235

JANA ONDŘEJKOVA

13 Restrictions on the right to a fair trial in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic 253

MARTA KŁOPOCKA-JASIŃSKA

Index 273

Biography

Monika Florczak-Wątor is Professor in the Constitutional Law Department of Jagiellonian University, Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Constitutional Studies of Jagiellonian University, and Director of the Interdisciplinary PhD programme ‘Society of the Future’ at the Jagiellonian University Doctoral School in Social Sciences, Poland.

Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz is Director and Research Professor of the Institute for Legal Studies, HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest and also Professor in Constitutional Law at the ELTE Law School, Hungary.

Jan Malíř is Research Fellow at the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the Commission for EU Law at the Legislative Council of the Cabinet, an advisory body to the Czech Cabinet (Prague), the Steering Committee of the Centre francais de recherche en sciences sociales (CEFRES, Prague) and of the PhD Advisory Committee at the Charles University Faculty of Law, Prague, Czech Republic.

Max Steuer is Associate Professor at O.P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School, India, and Assistant Professor at Comenius University in Bratislava, Department of Political Science, Slovakia.

‘The COVID-19 pandemic tested the boundaries of constitutionalism throughout the world, and no more so can this be seen than in the varied and contrasting actions taken by the Visegrad Four. This volume provides an invaluable contribution to the debates on states of emergency, locating them within the wider context of response to crisis and the protection of fundamental rights’.

Joelle Grogan (senior researcher, King’s College London; research fellow, CEU Democracy Institute; co-editor, Routledge Handbook of Law and the COVID-19 Pandemic)