Lex-Atlas: Covid-19

The Parliamentary Response to Covid-19 in Brazil: Overriding Vetoes as a Form of Legislative Resistance to Government Denialism

By Evanilda Godoi* Recent research has shown that since the beginning of the global spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, Jair Bolsonaro's presidency has been characterized by “Executive underreach”, and by

Jamaica

Full Jamaica report published

The full Jamaica report has recently been published in the Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19. The newly added sections of the report, Parts V and VI, are

Ireland

Full Ireland report published

The Irish Report for the Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19 has recently been published in full. The newly published sections of the Report concern, respectively, the social

European Union

Full European Union report published

This blogpost is based on the new complete report for the European Union authored by Tamara Hervey and Sabrina Roettger-Wirtz in the Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19,

Ireland

COVID-19 and Digital Technology Risks: A Legal Analysis of Irish Privacy Attitudes

The findings at the basis of this blogpost have been published in Edoardo Celeste, Sorcha Montgomery, Arthit Suriyawongkul (2022)  ‘Digital technology and privacy attitudes in times of COVID-19: formal legality

Indonesia

Full Indonesia Report published

The full country report for Indonesia is the latest addition to the Lex-Atlas: Covid-19 project, and the Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19, authored by Linda Yanti Sulistiawati

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

The rule of law, Covid-19, and the struggle against autocratic power – towards a multi-faceted approach

By David Mednicoff (external contributor) In the context of what Larry Diamond has called a global 'democratic recession,' can the rule of law push back on powers that leaders

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

A legitimate tobacco ban? Reflections on the South African judiciary’s approach to Covid-19 lockdown measures

By Timothy Fish Hodgson and Melanie Jean Murcott (external contributors) More than two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, we have grown accustomed to a new lexicon: from social distancing to

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

Decision-makers in times of crisis

By Joelle Grogan (external contributor) The Covid-19 pandemic caused a severe strain on health systems globally, while simultaneously presenting a social, economic, legal, political, and regulatory challenge. Decisions about how

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

Covid-19 and the Rule of Law

By Carmen E Pavel (external contributor) In a state of emergency, it is easy to believe that there are no limits to what governments must do to respond. During the

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

Health Capital: introducing an evaluative framework to assess social policies

By Thomas Schramme (external contributor) The fact that health is a form of wealth has perhaps never been as obvious as it is today. Increasingly, human health is being perceived

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

Using Models to Predict, Project, and Persuade

By Eric Winsberg (external contributor) It is a home truth in philosophy of science that models are not, in the first instance, evaluated for their truth or accuracy, but for

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

Parliaments during the Pandemic: an analysis of 39 countries using Lex-Atlas: Covid-19 data

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to parliaments around the world (Bar-Siman-Tov 2020). Parliaments have faced both political and operational challenges. The former has seen a sharp increase in

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

Science and Values in Pandemic Policy

By Erik Angner (external contributor) 'You can’t derive an "ought" from an "is",' said David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher. If you want to know what ought to

Blog Symposium on Power, Policy and Pandemics

Editorial: Power, Policy, and Pandemics – in Search of Principle

By Emily Barritt and Carmen Pavel (external contributors) People bolted shut in their apartment buildings in China for weeks on end; workers beaten by the police in the streets of

Argentina

Legal battle over the closure of schools in the city of Buenos Aires

On 14 April 2021, the federal Government, through the Necessity and Urgency Decree 241/2021 announced, among other measures, the closure of schools in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires

Austria

Vaccinations in a federal State

The number of cases in Austria is currently falling sharply. Recently, the Minister of Health issued an ordinance allowing restaurants and hotels to open for clients who meet the '3G-requirement'

Spain

Administrative penalties for breaches of the state of alarm in Spain: an overview of unsolved problems

As explained in Part II of the Oxford Compendium Country Report for Spain, over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic the Spanish Government declared two nationwide states of alarm (14

United Kingdom

The English Law of QR Codes: Presence Tracing and Digital Divides

The legal framework surrounding the convenient QR code check-in system in England highlights tensions that emerge when trying to provide privacy technologies alongside manual approaches whilst also creating new types of offences.

Peru

General Elections in Peru 2021: The pandemic has won

On 11 April 2021, the general elections took place in Peru to elect the new President and Congress for the period 2021-2026, with an absolutely unpredictable and discouraging result from

Ethiopia

Covid-19 and the sixth general election in Ethiopia

The sixth general election of Ethiopia, which many deemed a litmus test on whether the country was going to transform into a democratic State, was supposed to be held before

Italy

The twilight of PM decrees: good or bad news?

For the past year, the legal framework (as detailed in Part II of the Oxford Compendium report on Italy) that the Italian Government used to face the pandemic has been

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

United Kingdom: mandatory vaccination and vaccine conditionality

United Kingdom law does not presently permit the Government to mandate compulsory vaccination. But neither has it regulated private mandates or vaccine certification at a time where private resort to

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

Immunity Certification Theatre

Digital vaccination certificates involve making many promises. Few can realistically be kept. In this post, we highlight how immunity certificates are characterised by both the concepts of performance and performativity, and examine particularly problematic 'theatres' where this occurs.

Belgium

Federal Belgium’s Covid-19 Response: dualism and exclusive powers under pressure

By Karel Reybrouck (external contributor) The Belgian federation consistently ranks among the poorest performing OECD countries in the Covid-19 pandemic. Belgium’s institutional structure, based on an opaque maze of

China

China's legal response to Covid-19

Covid-19 first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan around November-December 2019, with the first mass outbreak starting there in January 2020. According to media reports, the earliest cases (though

Spain

Prohibition of evictions and extraordinary measures on rentals for vulnerable groups extended until 9 August 2021

On 4 May 2021, the Spanish Council of Ministers decided to prolong a set of social measures that were adopted to protect the access of vulnerable citizens to affordable and

Belgium

A countdown to end the lockdown? The Brussels Court of First Instance gives the Belgian government 30 days to adapt the legal bases of the health measures

The legal bases of the measures enacted in Belgium since the beginning of the health crisis have been the subject of intense debate for months. Paraphrasing Victor Hugo in Les

Spain

Courts as co-legislators in Spain: a problematic procedural reform to control health restrictions

By Alba Nogueira (external contributor) Tomorrow, on Sunday 9 May 2021, the nationwide state of alarm declared by the Spanish Government back on 25 October 2020 will come to an

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

Israel: is the 'green pass' an example to follow?

In Israel, although the Public Health Ordinance of 1940 allows mandatory vaccinations in health emergencies, the law also affords constitutional and statutory protections against it, through the Basic Law: Human

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

Mandatory vaccinations in the workplace: constitutionalising the managerial prerogative

The Centner Academy in Miami, a fee paying private school, adopted a policy discouraging its teachers from receiving the Covid-19 vaccine. Teachers who had received the vaccine would not be

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

United States: vaccination requirements and verification programs split state governments

Although most state governments in the United States (‘US’) have some form of legal framework in place to require vaccination under certain circumstances, no mandatory, universal vaccination program for Covid-19

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

China: The QR Code System - a battle between privacy and public interests?

China is perhaps the first country to use tracking mechanisms through mobile phones and/or social media Apps such as WeChat and Alipay to track people’s movements or to

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

Italy: between mandatory and conditional Covid-19 vaccination policies

A recent Italian statutory decree (Decree 1 April 2021 no. 44) requires that front-line healthcare workers be vaccinated as a service condition. The Editorial on vaccination policies (part I) distinguishes

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

Spain: Compulsory vaccination possibly constitutional, probably not this way

As mentioned in the Editorial (Part I) of this Blog Symposium, the Parliament of the Autonomous Community (AC) of Galicia, Spain, has recently passed Law 8/2021 amending the regional

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

Norway: voluntary vaccination is the policy, though the law seems to allow for more

Vaccination against Covid-19 started in Norway on 27 December 2020. At the time of writing, Norway had fully vaccinated around 6,6% of its population and provided the first dose

Pakistan

Pakistan's Phased Vaccination Rollout

Like many other countries across the world, Pakistan too has begun a national vaccination drive for Covid-19. In Pakistan, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) is coordinating and syngerising

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

Brazil: compulsory (but not forced) vaccination is constitutional, says Supreme Federal Tribunal

The issue of compulsory vaccination was considered by the Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF) in three separate cases on 17 December 2020. Two of them were related

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

Chile: mandatory vaccination and Covid-19

Vaccination programmes are among the most effective tools at the State’s disposal to protect public health. They have been part of Chile’s response to public health threats such

Blog Symposium on Mandatory Vaccination

An in-principle case for mandatory vaccination

By Tom Douglas (external contributor) Suppose a cyclist is careering down the hill towards your child. Through no fault of his own, he has lost control of the bike. The

Brazil

A parliamentary commission of inquiry (CPI) will investigate Brazil's Response to Covid-19 and the President’s liability for one of the worst death rates in the world

This week a parliamentary commission of inquiry (CPI) has been set up in the Brazilian Senate to investigate the performance of the federal government in the Brazilian response to the

Sweden