Law in Times of Crisis


Book Description

This book presents a systematic and comprehensive attempt by legal scholars to conceptualize the theory of emergency powers, combining post-September 11 developments with more general theoretical, historical and comparative perspectives. The authors examine the interface between law and violent crises through history and across jurisdictions.




Law in a Time of Crisis


Book Description

'Thoughtful, stimulating and even entertaining ... Lord Sumption's opinion is always worth listening to, even - or especially - if one disagrees with it.' Daily Telegraph 'Time spent on Law in a Time of Crisis is time spent in the company of a brilliant mind considering interesting things' The Times Brexit, the independence referendum, the pandemic: the UK is a country in crisis. And, in crises, we turn to the law to set the boundaries of what the government can and should do. However, in a country with no written constitution, what sounds like a simple proposition is in fact anything but. Based on his 2019 Reith lectures, former Supreme Court Judge Jonathan Sumption asks: what are the limits of law in politics? Is not having a constitution a hindrance or help in times of crisis? From referenda to the rise of nationalisms, Law in a Time of Crisis exposes the uses and abuses of legal intervention in British crises - past, present, and potential.




Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis


Book Description

All ten of the living former U.S. State Department legal advisers from the Carter administration to that of George W. Bush examine the role international law played during the major crises on their watch.




How International Law Works in Times of Crisis


Book Description

For some time, the word 'crisis' has been dominating international political discourse. But this is nothing new. Crisis has always been part of the discipline of international law. History indeed shows that international law has developed through reacting to previous experiences of crisis, reflecting an agreement on what it takes to avoid their repetition. However, human society evolves and challenges existing rules, structures, and agreements. International law is confronted with questions as to the suitability of the existing legal framework for new stages of development. Ulrich and Ziemele here bring together an expert group of scholars to address the question of how international law confronts crises today in terms of legal thought, rule-making, and rule-application. The editors have characterized international law and crisis discourse as one of a dialectical nature, and have grouped the articles contained in the volume under four main themes: security, immunities, sustainable development, and philosophical perspectives. Each theme pertains to an area of international law which at the present moment in time is subject to notable challenges and confrontations from developments in human society. The surprising general conclusion which emerges is that, by and large, the international legal system contains concepts, principles, rules, mechanisms and formats for addressing the various developments that may prima facie seem to challenge these very same elements of the system. Their use, however, requires informed policy decisions.




How International Law Works in Times of Crisis


Book Description

For some time, the word 'crisis' has been dominating international political discourse. But this is nothing new. Crisis has always been part of the discipline of international law. History indeed shows that international law has developed through reacting to previous experiences of crisis, reflecting an agreement on what it takes to avoid their repetition. However, human society evolves and challenges existing rules, structures, and agreements. International law is confronted with questions as to the suitability of the existing legal framework for new stages of development. Ulrich and Ziemele here bring together an expert group of scholars to address the question of how international law confronts crises today in terms of legal thought, rule-making, and rule-application. The editors have characterized international law and crisis discourse as one of a dialectical nature, and have grouped the articles contained in the volume under four main themes: security, immunities, sustainable development, and philosophical perspectives. Each theme pertains to an area of international law which at the present moment in time is subject to notable challenges and confrontations from developments in human society. The surprising general conclusion which emerges is that, by and large, the international legal system contains concepts, principles, rules, mechanisms and formats for addressing the various developments that may prima facie seem to challenge these very same elements of the system. Their use, however, requires informed policy decisions.




Constitutions in Times of Financial Crisis


Book Description

Many constitutions include provisions intended to limit the discretion of governments in economic policy. In times of financial crises, such provisions often come under pressure as a result of calls for exceptional responses to crisis situations. This volume assesses the ability of constitutional orders all over the world to cope with financial crises, and the demands for emergency powers that typically accompany them. Bringing together a variety of perspectives from legal scholars, economists, and political scientists, this volume traces the long-run implications of financial crises for constitutional order. In exploring the theoretical and practical problems raised by the constitutionalization of economic policy during times of severe crisis, this volume showcases an array of constitutional design options and the ways they channel governmental responses to emergency.




Crisis Lawyering


Book Description

Shines a light on the emerging field of law dedicated to responding to and resolving the crises of the twenty-first century In an increasingly globalized world, a complex and interlocking web of nations, governments, non-state actors, laws, and rules affect human behavior. When crisis hits—whether that be extrajudicial detention, unprompted deportation, pandemics, or natural disasters—lawyers are increasingly among the first responders, equipped with the knowledge necessary to navigate the regulations of this ever more complex world. Crisis Lawyering explores this phenomenon and attempts to identify and define what it means to engage in the practice of law in crisis situations. In so doing, it hopes to sketch out the contours of the emerging field of crisis lawyering. Contributors to this volume explore cases surrounding domestic violence; dealing with immigrants in detention and banned from travel; policing in Ferguson, Missouri; the kidnapping of journalists; and climate change, among other crises. Their analysis not only serves as guidance to lawyers in such situations, but also helps others who deal with crises understand those crises—and the role of lawyers in them—better so that they may respond to them more effectively, efficiently, collaboratively and creatively. Crisis Lawyering shines a light on the emerging field of law dedicated to responding to and resolving the complex crises of the twenty-first century.




International Insolvency and Finance Law


Book Description

Focusing on the Global Financial Crisis 2007-2010 and the new emerging Covid-19 crisis in 2020, this book examines the discourse on risk and uncertainty in the markets through the lens of financial crises. Such crises represent a failure of the law to regulate, and constitute the basis through which a new theory of legal constants can be introduced in comparative law. Crisis impose a dramatic reformulation of the law, the Covid-19 confirms this trend, and new out-of-law instances are appearing beyond a paternalistic approach of direct State regulation. Restructuring procedures are playing a vital role in businesses’ survival, and new out-of-law mechanisms such as moratorium agreements and private workouts have become essential to preserve businesses. It is clear that the role of the law has completely changed, and this book argues that constants outside of the law are new ways to promote an “uncodified-codification” of the law. The case for uncodified uncertainty in the Covid-19 crisis is a primary example of how no codification process can ignore the importance of out-of-law instances in the act of making law. This book explores how this approach influences the harmonisation process of international economic law between national insolvency regimes and international agreed frameworks, demonstrating the role of comparative law in formulating legal constants using Covid-19 and the complexity of modern financial markets as the criterion to introduce the reader to this new theory, which claims a new role for comparative law in policy making processes within the framework of international economic law.




The American Legal Profession in Crisis


Book Description

Throughout history, the American legal profession has tried to hold tight to its identity by retreating into its traditional values and structure during times of self-perceived crisis. The American Legal Profession in Crisis: Resistance and Responses to Change analyzes the efforts of the legal profession to protect and maintain the status quo even as the world around it changed. Author James E. Moliterno, consistently argues that the profession has resisted societal change and sought to ban or discourage new models of legal representation created by such change. In response to every crisis, lawyers asked: "How can we stay even more 'the same' than we already are?" The legal profession has been an unwilling, capitulating entity to any transformation wrought by the overwhelming tide of change. Only when the shifts in society, culture, technology, economics, and globalization could no longer be denied did the legal profession make any proactive changes that would preserve status quo. This book demonstrates how the profession has held to its anachronistic ways at key crisis points in US history: Watergate, communist infiltration, waves of immigration, the explosion of litigation, and the current economic crisis that blends with dramatic changes in technology, communications, and globalization. Ultimately, Moliterno urges the profession to look outward and forward to find in society and culture the causes and connections with these periodic crises. Doing so would allow the profession to grow with the society, solve problems with, rather than against, the flow of society, and be more attuned to the very society the profession claims to serve. This paperback version includes a commentary on the prevailing crisis in legal education.




Crisis Narratives in International Law


Book Description

This volume offers a series of short and highly self-reflective essays by leading international lawyers on the relation between international law and crises. It particularly shows that international law shapes the crises that it addresses as much as it is shaped by them. It critically evaluates the modes of intervention of international law in the problems of the world. Together these essays provide a unique stocktaking about the role, limits, and potential of international law as well as the worlds that are imagined through international lawyers’ vocabularies.