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 Stephanie 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 Julian 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 Emilio 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 Basak Cali and Emre Turkut 21 The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pretext for Expanding Power in Hungary 259 Kriszta Kovacs 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
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.
Reviews for Routledge Handbook of Law and the COVID-19 Pandemic
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 Luis 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
