How do we maintain core values and rights when governments impose restrictive measures on our lives? Declaring a state of emergency is the best way to protect public health in a pandemic but how do these powers differ from those for national security and economic crises? This book explores how human rights, democracy and the rule of law can be protected during a pandemic and how emergency powers can best be ended once it wanes. Written by an expert on constitutional law and human rights, this accessible book will shape how governments, opposition, courts and society as a whole view future pandemic emergency powers.

In a democracy, the legitimacy of authority derives from the consent of the governed. Constitutions or long-standing norms typically impose constraints on government authority, but under extraordinary circumstances—emergencies—normal and procedural standards can be overridden or suspended. Such was the case when the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in the spring of 2020. This book describes the emergency powers that existed in the American states at the start of the pandemic; shows how such powers were implemented; examines how courts, legislatures, and public opinion responded to the use of emergency powers; and considers the resulting tensions they exert on democratic governance. Contributors provide a background on the legal justification for emergency powers and offer summaries of the executive orders that were in effect as of mid-2020 across the United States and its territories, with special attention paid to California and Texas. They also review public attitudes about the dangers of the coronavirus and appropriate responses to it, and raise further questions about emergency powers and democratic governance—questions that deserve serious consideration before the next emergency prompts another exercise of such powers.

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19, has infected people in 212 countries so far and on every continent except Antarctica. Vast changes to our home lives, social interactions, government functioning and relations between countries have swept the world in a few months and are difficult to hold in one’s mind at one time. That is why a collaborative effort such as this edited, multidisciplinary collection is needed. This book confronts the vulnerabilities and interconnectedness made visible by the pandemic and its consequences, along with the legal, ethical and policy responses. These include vulnerabilities for people who have been harmed or will be harmed by the virus directly and those harmed by measures taken to slow its relentless march; vulnerabilities exposed in our institutions, governance and legal structures; and vulnerabilities in other countries and at the global level where persistent injustices harm us all. Hopefully, COVID-19 will forces us to deeply reflect on how we govern and our policy priorities; to focus preparedness, precaution, and recovery to include all, not just some. Published in English with some chapters in French.

Examines the most important democratic challenges of today, using the Covid-19 pandemic as a case study.

Ever since Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. used "imperial presidency" as a book title, the term has become central to the debate about the balance of power in the U.S. government. Since the presidency of George W. Bush, when advocates of executive power such as Dick Cheney gained ascendancy, the argument has blazed hotter than ever. Many argue the Constitution itself is in grave danger. What is to be done? The answer, according to legal scholars Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule, is nothing. In The Executive Unbound, they provide a bracing challenge to conventional wisdom, arguing that a strong presidency is inevitable in the modern world. Most scholars, they note, object to today's level of executive power because it varies so dramatically from the vision of the framers. But there is nothing in our system of checks and balances that intrinsically generates order or promotes positive arrangements. In fact, the greater complexity of the modern world produces a concentration of power, particularly in the White House. The authors chart the rise of executive authority straight through to the Obama presidency. Political, cultural and social restraints, they argue, have been more effective in preventing dictatorship than any law. The executive-centered state tends to generate political checks that substitute for the legal checks of the Madisonian constitution.

"Pandemics, Public Health Emergencies and Government Powers: Perspectives on Australian Law explores the multi-layered and multi-faceted ways in which Australia's laws, regulations and law-makers have engaged with the COVID-19 pandemic. What emerges from the 21 chapters from leading scholars in this edited collection is that there have been both successes and failures. The virus keeps evolving and we as a nation need to continue to learn from international developments and what has, and has not, worked in Australia. Law is an integral part of the public health framework that protects the community during a pandemic. A significant component of Australia's legal response to COVID-19 has been to give extensive powers to State and Territory governments to manage the crisis. This has involved imposition of limits on individuals' rights and liberties in relation to quarantine arrangements, border control, lockdowns, curfews and face masks, as well as requirements to use QR codes. At times these measures have been controversial, both legally and within the general community. Our workplaces, our clinical services, our research processes and our legal system will emerge changed after COVID-19. This requires ongoing evaluation and reflection." --

A concise history of how American law has shaped—and been shaped by—the experience of contagion“Contrarians and the civic-minded alike will find Witt’s legal survey a fascinating resource”—Kirkus, starred review “Professor Witt’s book is an original and thoughtful contribution to the interdisciplinary study of disease and American law. Although he covers the broad sweep of the American experience of epidemics from yellow fever to COVID-19, he is especially timely in his exploration of the legal background to the current disaster of the American response to the coronavirus. A thought-provoking, readable, and important work.”—Frank Snowden, author of Epidemics and Society From yellow fever to smallpox to polio to AIDS to COVID-19, epidemics have prompted Americans to make choices and answer questions about their basic values and their laws. In five concise chapters, historian John Fabian Witt traces the legal history of epidemics, showing how infectious disease has both shaped, and been shaped by, the law. Arguing that throughout American history legal approaches to public health have been liberal for some communities and authoritarian for others, Witt shows us how history’s answers to the major questions brought up by previous epidemics help shape our answers today: What is the relationship between individual liberty and the common good? What is the role of the federal government, and what is the role of the states? Will long-standing traditions of government and law give way to the social imperatives of an epidemic? Will we let the inequities of our mixed tradition continue?