Thema: Notstand & Krisen

Notstandsverfassungsrecht und Krisenregierung für alle Formen außergewöhnlicher Umstände. Umfasst verfassungsrechtliche Rahmen für Ausnahmezustände, Kriegsbefugnisse, Finanzkrisen, Pandemien, Naturkatastrophen und andere Krisensituationen, die außergewöhnliche staatliche Reaktionen erfordern. Umfasst verfassungsrechtliche Regulierung von Notstandsbefugnissen, Krisenmanagement und verfassungsrechtliche Kontinuität während Notlagen jeglicher Art.

Counter-Terrorism, the Rule of Law and the ‚Counter-Law‘ Critique

The Rule of Law requires that the law be a reliable and non-oppressive guide to how citizens should act: as such, the laws governing every citizen must be rationally knowable and voluntarily followable (and, by extension, open to rational challenge and justification). Tendencies in counter-terrorist legislation clearly run counter to the Rule of Law thus understood. Every move away from knowable and followable laws is a move away from it.

16. Mai 2022

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The Dilemma of Mild Emergencies that are Accepted as Consistent with Human Rights

Amid the pandemic and the war in the Ukraine, Canada had a quiet emergency. On 14 February 2022, the federal government used the Emergencies Act to respond to a three week occupation of the Parliament building and various border blockades. This was a mild and quick emergency, as far as emergencies go. Mild emergencies that arguably respect rights are better than severe emergencies that do not, yet there is cause for concern.

12. Mai 2022

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Das Dilemma der milden Notfälle, die als mit Menschenrechten vereinbar akzeptiert werden

Inmitten der Pandemie und des Krieges in der Ukraine herrschte in Kanada ein stiller Notfall. Am 14. Februar 2022 nutzte die Bundesregierung das Notstandsgesetz, um auf eine dreiwöchige Besetzung des Parlamentsgebäudes und verschiedene Grenzblockaden zu reagieren. Es handelte sich um einen vergleichsweise milden und schnellen Notfall. Milde Notfälle, bei denen Rechte angeblich Beachtung finden, sind besser als schwere Notfälle, bei denen dies nicht der Fall ist. Dennoch besteht Anlass zur Sorge.

12. Mai 2022

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Never-Ending Exception

The planned 10th amendment to the Hungarian constitution aims to rewrite the current rules of Article 53, which allows the government to declare a state of danger (and rule by decree as it did during the last two years) in the event of a natural or industrial disaster endangering lives and property, or to mitigate the consequences thereof. According to the proposed new rules, the government will also be able to declare this kind of emergency ‘in the event of armed conflict, war or humanitarian catastrophe in a neighbouring country’. This is just the latest chapter in the story of the democratic and rule-of-law backsliding in Hungary.

10. Mai 2022

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„Im Zweifelsfall inhaftieren!“

Israel wurde in letzter Zeit von einer Reihe von Terroranschlägen heimgesucht, darunter drei Anschläge in einer einzigen Woche Ende März 2022, und weitere seither. In dem Versuch, die Gewalt einzudämmen, beschloss die israelische Regierung unter anderem nicht nur mutmaßliche Terroristen aus den besetzten Gebieten (wie sie es regelmäßig tut), sondern auch mögliche Verdächtige unter israelischen Bürgern ohne Gerichtsverfahren in Verwaltungshaft zu nehmen. Der Einsatz von Verwaltungshaft ohne Gerichtsverfahren ist ein gutes Beispiel für den permanenten Ausnahmezustand, da er als reguläres Mittel der Regierung eingesetzt wird: Im Zweifelsfall verhaftet die israelische Regierung.

10. Mai 2022

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“When in doubt, detain!”

Israel recently saw a bout of terror attacks, including three assaults in a single week in late March 2022, and more since. The Israeli Government, in an attempt to curb the violence, decided among other steps to administratively detain without trial not only suspected possible terrorists from the Occupied Territories (as it regularly does) but also possible suspects among Israeli citizens. The use of administrative detentions without trial is a good example of the permanent mindset of emergency, as they are utilized as a regular means of government: when in doubt, the Israeli government detains.

10. Mai 2022

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On 9/11 and three natures of a permanent state of emergency

One particular consequence of the post-9/11-counterterrorism paradigm is there has been a rapid and global expansion of emergency powers, as terrorist threats are viewed as creating a ‘permanent’ emergency. This is not to say that the post-9/11 war on terror was new as far as the issues of states of emergency are concerned, but rather, as aptly put by Dyzenhaus, "all that is new is the prevalence of the claim that this emergency has no foreseeable end and so is permanent.”

9. Mai 2022

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Democracy Under Total War

Ukraine is engaged in an existential war for survival. One need not accept the full role of the exception from Carl Schmitt to acknowledge that the struggle to withstand a brutal assault on civilians transcends all other issues. Ukrainian constitutional law recognizes the need for exceptional powers during a state of emergency, as does every other constitutional order whether expressly or tacitly. Necessarily, a war for survival shifts authority from parliament to the executive and many of the founding principles of democracy may be suspended during the emergency, even such defining features of democracy as popular selection of the government.

5. Mai 2022

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