UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has stretched State capacity across the globe. It has simultaneously revealed both the robustness and fragility of public health, education, transportation, economics, welfare, and security systems. In one way, the pandemic is a classic emergency challenge for States. The pandemic is a sudden and unexpected event threatening many lives, and the multifaceted physical manifestations of and recovery from Covid-19 have crippled the capacity of health systems to function. In parallel, the pandemic also presents the spectre of a new normal, as exceptionality in the experience of a health crisis may not go away and pathogen-led crises may be with us for the long haul. There is no shortage of exceptional emergency responses to the pandemic, ranging from mandatory lockdowns, limits on freedom of expression, vaccine mandates, and mandatory labour production. Assessment of the scale, impact, and long-term significances of such emergency practice is nascent, and this Article offers a preliminary assessment of the legal forms and consequences of a resort to exceptional powers and widespread emergency practice across the globe. Specifically, this Article provides a typology of emergency powers practice emerging through pandemic responses. In addition, this Article explores the new forms and variations of emergency powers that appear to be thriving in the new normal of the pandemic. And finally, this Article addresses the human rights and rule of law consequences of new exceptionalities and offers a nuanced assessment in order to better understand global, regional, and national responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.