ContInt

Research Group on Constitutional Interpretation

Emergency powers are introduced into legal systems under extraordinary circumstances, such as war, climate catastrophe, or global pandemics, such as COVID-19, to manage the legal system under extraordinary pressure. The emergency (or extraordinary) power of the state is used for a period of time to prevent damage to society. Constitutions regulate emergency powers differently. Usually, a feature of an extraordinary legal system is the constitutional limitation on fundamental rights, including freedom of information.

As part of the Routledge series on Comparative Constitutional Change, a new book on Populist Challenges to Constitutional Interpretation in Europe and Beyond, co-edited by Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz and Zoltán Szente has just been published. This book explores the relationship between populism or populist regimes and constitutional interpretation used in those regimes. The volume discusses the question of whether contemporary populist governments and movements have developed, or encouraged new and specific constitutional theories, doctrines and methods of interpretation, or whether their constitutional and other high courts continue to use the old, traditional interpretative tools in constitutional adjudication.