Constitutional interpretation in emergencies in Europe

• Department of Law
• Central Coordination Unit
• Widening Europe Programme

The aim of the workshop is to examine how emergencies impact the methodology and practice of constitutional interpretation in Europe.

There has been a vast and growing literature over the last two decades on the legal theory of emergencies, regulatory regimes, and the scientific assessment of exceptional powers and rights-restrictions. However, less attention has been paid to the constitutional review of emergency legislation, despite the fact that the issue has been raised time and time again from Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 2 (1866) to Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), from A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL (the Belmarsh case) to the COVID-19 case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The primary reason for this scholarly gap may be that (constitutional) courts have traditionally been deferential to the executive in dealing with a crisis in times of emergency, and, since judicial review usually reacts to legal challenges with some delay and after the events, it is difficult to access the relatively limited information needed for normative assessment or even for broader comparative analysis. 

Please register to reserve a seat for the in-person participation and to receive a Zoom meeting link to join the workshop online.

This event is funded by the EUI Widening Europe Programme. The EUI Widening Europe Programme initiative, backed by contributions from the European Union and EUI Contracting States, is designed to strengthen internationalisation, competitiveness, and quality in research in Widening countries, and thus foster a more cohesive European Higher Education and Research area.