As the Covid-19 virus spread across the globe, European counties have adopted different legislative approaches to effectively combat the pandemic. Citing the need for rapid decision-making, governments have imposed extraordinary measures – and incidentally gained significant new powers. Some countries have adopted measures that severely restrict the freedom of the population, or that are long-lasting, or even indefinite.
While some human rights limitations may be necessary, the measures adopted during these times should not exceed neither the scale nor the duration needed to combat the coronavirus. Careful monitoring is crucial in this situation to prevent the extraordinary powers from being misused.
With Poland, Hungary, France and Norway as our main focal points, Adam Bodnar (Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Poland and 2018 Rafto laureate), Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez (Professor of Law, Université Paris Nanterre), Eirik Holmøyvik (Professor of Law at UiB, and member of the Venice Commission) and Alida Steigler (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest and LawTransform) discuss why in the European context, such different legal approaches were brought to life in order to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is chaired by Siri Gloppen (LawTransform Director and Professor of Comparative Politics UiB).
Read more about the webinar here.
Watch the webinar here: