—Alexander Hudson, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] One of the social distancing measures that some governments have considered (or indeed already implemented) to fight the Covid-19 pandemic is delaying
COVID-19 and the Bound Executive
—Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago, and Mila Versteeg, University of Virginia The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a wide variety of governmental responses as it makes its way around the globe, and scholars have been tracking them from many different angles. In a new paper, we argue that the pandemic response should modify our understanding about
Special Undergraduate Series–COVID-19: The Indian Supreme Court’s Abdication of Constitutional Duty
Special Series: Perspectives from Undergraduate Law StudentsLL.B. Student Contribution —Prannv Dhawan, National Law School of India University, and Anmol Jain, National Law University, Jodhpur Judicial restraint is necessary in dealing with the powers of another co-ordinate bench of the government; but restraint cannot imply abdication of the responsibility of walking on that edge. —Supreme Court
We Teach and Learn Online. Are We All Digital Citizens Now? Lessons on Digital Citizenship from the Lockdown
—Sofia Ranchordas, University of Groningen [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] Over the past several decades, public administrations, universities, and schools have been debating whether and how to automate administrative procedures and invest in remote learning and working. In
Hercules Leaves (But Does Not Abandon) the Forum of Principle: Courts, Judicial Review, and COVID-19
—Vicente F. Benítez R., JSD candidate at NYU School of Law and Constitutional Law Professor at Universidad de La Sabana* Introduction Several analysts have warned about the sudden concentration of power in the hands of chief executives in the wake of the COVID-19 situation. From the Americas to Africa, and from Europe to Asia, we
Are Quebec and Canada having a “Schmittian” (or Iheringian) moment?
—Maxime St-Hilaire, University of Sherbrooke, Faculty of Law On June 16, 2019, the Quebec legislature invoked Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in order to suspend, with regards to the Act respecting the laicity (secularism)of the State (ALS) that it was passing, all constitutional rights and freedoms which this section permits.
Human Rights in Africa in the Context of Covid-19
–Sean Molloy, Research Associate, Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University In response to Covid-19, countries across Africa are declaring a state of emergency (these include Botswana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Botswana, Ethiopia and Senegal, to name a few). Doing so allows the authorities, in times of urgent necessity, to take actions necessary to safeguard national security, maintain
A Liberal Darling or an Inadvertent Hand to Dictators? Open-Ended Lawmaking and Taiwan’s Legal Response to the Covid Pandemic
–Ming-Sung Kuo, Associate Professor, University of Warwick, UK. Email: M-S.Kuo@warwick.ac.uk Taiwan has recently received unusual international coverage for its stellar performance in the global fight against the Covid pandemic. It is noted that the Taiwan society and government drew hard lessons from their painful experience in the 2003 Sars outbreak. Learning from the experience with
Lies in the Time of Corona: Attempts to Inoculate Truth from a Pandemic
—Andrea Scoseria Katz, NYU School of Law [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. For more information about our four columnists for 2020, please click here.] The problem with lying in politics, the philosopher Hannah Arendt once pointed out, isn’t that people start to take the lies seriously, but rather that “nobody
“Constitutional Dismemberment” and Strategic Deconstitutionalization in Times of Crisis: Beyond Emergency Powers
—Cristiano Paixão & Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília It could not be otherwise: Covid-19 is the topic of the moment in constitutional law. A series of debates over the impacts of this external factor on the functioning of democratic or authoritarian states, the leadership or not of their respective governments to face such severe
