Tag: Covid-19
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Paolo Sandro: Soft, But for Whom? Law and the Creation of Accountability
*Editors’ note – this post is part of a series on ‘The Rule of Guidance?’. The other posts in the series will be available here. Five years on, and with a potential new pandemic on the horizon (if not already here), researchers from all disciplines have been very busy evaluating how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was managed…
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Tasneem Ghazi: Political Accountability for the Abuse of Guidance: Comparing English and Irish Guidance during the Coronavirus Lockdown
*Editors’ note – this post is part of a series on ‘The Rule of Guidance?’. The other posts in the series will be available here. Introduction In March 2020, the government of Ireland and the UK government exercising its responsibility for England, like others across the world, rushed to impose wide-ranging restrictions on many facets of…
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Katie Lines: Law and Guidance in a Public Health Emergency
*Editors’ note – this post is part of a series on ‘The Rule of Guidance?’. The other posts in the series will be available here. The use of law and guidance in a public health emergency was one of the issues explored by the Independent Commission on UK Public Health Emergency Powers. The Commission, chaired by…
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Tom Hickman KC and Joe Tomlinson: What role did judicial review play during the pandemic?
In one of the most celebrated passages in legal history, Lord Atkin stated in Liversidge v Anderson [1942] AC 206 that whether in war or in peace, the laws speak in the same voice and that the judges, “stand between the subject and any attempted encroachments on his liberty by the executive, alert to see that any…
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Mike Gordon: The Prime Minister, the Parties, and the Ministerial Code
The current Prime Minister’s long running battle with the Seven Principles of Public Life continues to gather pace. Boris Johnson’s actions relating to the pandemic ‘partygate’ scandal have arguably violated each of the principles established by the Nolan Committee in 1995: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. The Prime Minister’s full house of…
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Paul Burgess: A Rule of Law Surprise Party(gate)
Partygate could tear apart the UK government but, regardless of one’s political preferences, there have been some good things that have come from the episode. Where it is not unusual to see different conceptions of the Rule of Law invoked on opposing sides of an argument, it was a pleasant surprise to see opposing sides…
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Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott: Rebalancing upstream and downstream scrutiny of government during national emergencies
Scrutiny comes in many forms, which can lead to many outcomes. Public scrutiny of Government is one such form, which is an element of democratic governance that aligns with the rule of law. Yet those experiencing and observing the ongoing administration of life in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic might be forgiven for arriving…
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Rhona Smith: ‘Building Back Better’ – obligations behind the soundbite
Whilst PM Boris Johnson and President Joe Biden may dispute who first used the tag ‘Build Back Better’ in the context of COVID-19 recovery planning, the phrase is, as one journalist did note, actually from United Nations documentation on disaster reduction and risk management. The 2015 UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction sits alongside the…
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Daniella Lock, Fiona de Londras and Pablo Grez Hidalgo: Parliamentary Engagement with Human Rights during COVID-19 and the Independent Human Rights Act Review
As the deadline for submissions to Independent Human Rights Act Review (IHRAR) passes this week, the appropriate division of constitutional labour in respect of human rights protection continues to attract debate. The terms of reference for the IHRAR suggest a focus on the role of the courts in protecting rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA).…