Tag: Covid-19
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Dean R Knight and Geoff McLay: Is New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown lawful? – an alternative view
The legality of the Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand has been thrust into the spotlight, with valuable analysis from colleagues Profs Geddis and Geiringer on this blog, subsequent public airing of that legal debate, and issue of judicial review proceedings to test the regime on the back of that analysis. Questions about the validity of…
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Jelena Gligorijević: Government Accountability for the Lawfulness of Lockdown: New Zealand Parliamentary Scrutiny and Privileged Legal Advice
The New Zealand Government recently lifted its “Level 4” COVID-19 restrictions. Significant restrictions, including coercive powers restricting basic liberties, remain active. Parliament’s Epidemic Response Committee is now planning to issue summonses for the production of legal advice given to the Government for these extraordinary measures. This advice is covered by legal professional privilege, which can…
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Simon Halliday, Jed Meers, and Joe Tomlinson: Public Attitudes on Compliance with COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions
In March 2020, the government introduced a set of restrictions to ‘lockdown’ the UK in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020; The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (Wales) Regulations 2020; The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020). These lockdown restrictions form the central plank of a wide…
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Constantinos Kombos: Covid-19 and the Cypriot Example: A Constitutional Paradox
Crisis has been a defining and underlying theme of Cypriot constitutional law since long before Covid-19. Constitutional genesis has been externally driven and the bi-communal (Greek and Turkish) structure of the State collapsed four years after the establishment of the Republic with the withdrawal of Turkish Cypriots from the constitutional organs. The inability to continue…
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Nyasha Weinberg: Parliament must legislate on the government’s plans for contact tracing apps
Today the Joint Committee on Human Rights will take evidence from the Information Commissioner, academics and the CEO of NHSX on the risks to the right to privacy (Article 8 ECHR) if a contact tracing app is introduced to track and slow the spread of the coronavirus. This is helpful scrutiny of the government’s plans.…
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Frederick Cowell: Lifting the Lockdown: The Human Rights Issues
The Coronavirus Act 2020, which was passed in less than three days by Parliament, does not contain the restrictions governing the lockdown in England. These are contained in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (the Regulations) passed under the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984. Devolved governments have pursued similar strategies in this respect. As…
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Stefano Civitarese Matteucci: The Italian Response to Coronavirus and Constitutional Disagreement
In this post, I first offer an essential account of how Italy has dealt with the Coronavirus outbreak. I then discuss the main points of controversy raised by public law scholars about the government response, before concluding with reflections on the broader debate about democracy and constitutionalism in times of global emergency. Coronavirus legislation A…
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Paul Bowen QC: Learning lessons the hard way – Article 2 duties to investigate the Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic
As we watch the Covid-19 pandemic unfold our attention is naturally on the steps that HM Government (‘HMG’) is taking to mitigate the immediate crisis. The time is approaching, however, when it will be necessary to evaluate HMG’s preparation for, and response to, the pandemic. Calls are being made by the TUC and doctors’ groups…
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Jennifer Collins: Coronavirus and the Spread of Crime Control
In this post I analyse some of the contradictions present in the current penal response to Covid-19 in England and Wales, represented in a recent Crown Prosecution Service press release. Coercive criminal law measures which clearly and proportionately penalize those who endanger emergency workers, or engage in fraudulent conduct, may be justified. But civil liberties…
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Andrew Geddis and Claudia Geiringer: Is New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown lawful?
The New Zealand Government’s “go hard, go early” response to the COVID-19 pandemic has garnered widespread praise – both in New Zealand and internationally. On March 25, less than four weeks after New Zealand’s first COVID case was diagnosed, the country was put into a state of “Level 4 Lockdown”, reducing social and economic life…