Dying a Thousand Deaths : Recurring Emergencies and Exceptional Measures in International Law

• Crises, while unforeseen and exceptional, appear with some regularity. Cri-sis management is not exceptional, but a recurring task. This paper studies the impact of international law on how international crises are handled and the room allowed for emergency measures within international legal dis-courses. It outlines the relationship between an extra-legal exceptionalist perspective, where law is considered an obstacle to emergency measures, and a more constitutionalist one, where exceptional measures are included within the legal paradigms. Examples are drawn from two contemporary crises: the global financial crisis, with particular reference to Iceland and the Icesave dispute, and the treatment of global epidemics and its effect on trade, with particular reference to the pandemic swine influenza A (H1N1). It is suggested that many factors seem to influence the choice of perspec-tive: inter alia previous deviations in similar situations and the institutional solidity of the legal environment of the rule in question. The role for inter-national law in crisis may increase through soft law guidance and persuasive advice from credible organisations that may assess the gravity of the situa-tion and suggest alternative courses of action within the ambit of law.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik -- Juridik och samhälle (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law -- Law and Society (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Giorgio Agamben

swine flu

WTO

WHO

financial crisis

Iceland

Icesave

deposit guarantee directive

exceptional measures

International law

Folkrätt

Public International Law

Folkrätt

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)