The legal void and COVID‐19 governance

Abstract

COVID-19 as a matter of governance provides an opportunity for questioning takenfor-granted assumptions of 'states of exception' (Agamben 2005) in the political mechanics of emergency rule. In Russia, for example, a zone of anomie is currently being produced that operates not within existing emergency laws but as what I call a new 'legal void'. Contemporary Russian law provides two versions of emergency regimes: 'an emergency situation' (chrezvychainaia situatsiia, or ChS) and 'the state of emergency' (chrezvychainoe polozhenie, or ChP). The first one has been used in disaster management since 1994. It is introduced at multiple administration levels for an indefinite time by decrees of the heads of corresponding administrations. The ChS regime has been applied in many situations, from a bridge in an unsafe condition to forest fires. The law on ChP was set to serve both political disorders and disasters, including epidemics. Unlike the ChS regime, it can be introduced only by the President and for a fixed term. It has never been implemented since its adoption in 2001. Both of the laws suspend some civil rights but also provide guarantees of compensation for harm to health, property damage and even for just living in the emergency zone. ChP law also details legal procedures such as detention and litigation under the state of emergency. However, to date, Russia's authorities are not using either of these special legal regimes in their pandemic governance. Most Russian regions have declared pre-emergency 'high alerts', and new restrictions have been introduced in amendments to these decrees. This non-declaration of emergency limits the rights of citizens and business owners to claim compensation for any kind of losses due to the legally 'normal' situation. This is what I describe as government producing a new legal void. The high alert decrees institute 'regime of self-isolation' (rezhim samoizoliatsii), 'distance work' (udalionnaia or distantsionnaia rabota) and 'quarantine' (karantin)-all absent in Russian law. In his appeal to the nation on 25 March and the subsequent decree, President Putin mentioned 'non-working days' (nerabochie dni), while the Labour Code only refers to working days, weekends and holidays. These new terms have perlocutionary effect of legally binding acts that themselves have no basis in Russian law. In this particular case, Putin's government has advanced what some scholars describe as 'counterfeiting of legality' (Rigi 2012: 81-83) by 'hybridisation' of emergency itself. Ironically, the Agambenian logic of the sovereign power is being perpetuated not through a declaration of emergency but the sovereign's withdrawal from it. But how atypical is Russia here? I wonder if this is just a Russian state of exception to FO RU M

Covid-19 pandemic and the unprecedented mobilisation of scholarly efforts prompted by a health crisis: Scientometric comparisons across SARS, MERS and 2019-nCoV literature

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Global law, policy, and governance for effective prevention and control of COVID-19: A comparative analysis of the law and policy of Pakistan, China, and Russia

“…Throughout the COVID-19 epidemic, basic rights were guaranteed by regional rules. But because Russia's health care system has been in trouble for a long time because of budget cuts, there was a strong argument that the state's failure to give health care workers the right safety gear could have violated their right to live ( 116 ). Anti-virus laws have been used to suppress public protest, thereby restricting the right to assemble, and “administrative arrest” powers have been used to temporarily jail individuals ( 117 ).…”

Militarisation Under COVID-19: Understanding the Differential Impact of Lockdown on the Forests of Colombia

“…Moreover, the exceptional circumstances of the global pandemic, which authorise new forms of exceptional rule over everyday life (Barros et al, 2020;Karaseva, 2020), have configured a moment where the powers of the military and associated illegal armed groups (paramilitary and guerrilla dissidents in association with drug-trafficking mafias) have increased in conservation areas. Illegal armies-officially distinct from state operations, but which in contexts like Colombia are allotted distinctive powers-may thus carry out deforestation and human rights abuses without being challenged.…”