State of Emergency
An Economic Analysis

State of emergency provides the first exploration of the causes and consequences of constitutional emergency provisions across the world.

Christian Bjørnskov (Author), Stefan Voigt (Author)

9781009372084, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 July 2024

440 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.819 kg

Nine out of ten constitutions contain explicit emergency provisions. During the pandemic, half of the governments with such constitutions has made use of these provisions by declaring a state of emergency. State of Emergency is the first book to analyse the factors that lead to such provisions being included in newly drafted constitutions. It explores their use – as well as their misuse – and explains the effects that using emergency provisions has. Declaring a state of emergency is particularly challenging in federally constituted states as it endangers the balance of powers between the federal level and the states. This book, therefore, pays special attention to this topic. Focusing on two of the most important recent cases relating to emergency provisions: the Covid-19 pandemic and acts of terrorism, this book uses numerous examples to analyse emergency provisions with a rigorous empirical approach.

1. Introduction
2. The Architecture of Emergency Constitutions
3. The Determinants of Emergency Constitutions
4. Why Do Governments Call a State of Emergency? On the Determinants of Using Emergency Constitutions
5. The Effectiveness of Emergency Constitutions After Natural Disasters
6. When Does Terror induce a State of Emergency? And what are the Effects?
7. States of Emergency After Domestic Turmoil
8. Dealing with Disaster – Analyzing the emergency constitutions of the US states
9. Keeping up the Balance between the Federation and the States
10. Constitutionalized Media Freedom during Emergencies: Is it only Windowdressing?
11. Unconstitutional States of Emergency
12. The Corona Pandemic, States of Emergency, and Reliance on Executive Decrees
13. Returning to the Status Quo Ante?
14. Contracting for Catastrophe: Legitimizing Emergency Constitutions by Drawing on Social Contract Theory
15. The Future of States of Emergency.

Subject Areas: Public finance [KFFD]