Keeping Covid-19 emergency legislation socially distant from ordinary legislation: principles for the structure of emergency legislation
Ronan Cormacain
Abstract
Domestic and international jurisprudence indicate the principles for law making in a public health emergency. These are that emergency laws should be limited, time-bounded and proportionate to the nature of the emergency. One way to give effect to these principles is to socially distance emergency legislation from ordinary legislation. This makes emergency laws separate and distinct from ordinary laws, and reduces the chances of them being used for periods and purposes beyond their initial remit. Specific structural techniques to do this are: to use sunset clauses, to use a single legislative vehicle for emergency laws, to use non-textual amendments, to avoid the standard mosaic approach to making new laws, to expressly state their temporary nature, to specifically limit their use to the emergency and to give them a title which indicates their emergency nature.