2: Emergency Powers in Public Law: The Legal Politics of Containment

This is the second episode of the End of Law-podcast.

In this episode I talked to Karin Loevy about her 2016 book Emergency Powers in Public Law: The Legal Politics of Containment.

Karin Loevy is a legal scholar working at the NYU School of Law and a researcher at the Institute for International Law and Justice. She also teaches international law at The New School, New York. Following the themes of her book she works on the theory and history of emergency powers and related topics in comparative and global public law. Lately she has focused on the history of international law in the Middle East in the period leading to the mandate system, focusing on territoriality.

I was joined by friend of the show, Przemysław Tacik, assistant professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland and director of the Nomos: Centre for International Research on Law, Culture and Power. Przemek is a philosopher and legal scholar, who has among other topics worked on sovereignty, self-determination and human rights.

Our discussion ranged from fundamental theoretical issues to concrete cases and historical events, in the Americas, Europe and Asia. An important issue was the tension between a juridical and a political understanding of emergencies and the interplay between them. This tied into the role of courts and the tendency of deference towards the executive branches. We also covered the potential for theories of emergency in general, the development since the book was published, as well as looking into the future in this time of continued crises and emergencies.

Works mentioned or referenced in the episode:

Bandopadhyay, S., All is Well: Catastrophe and the Making of the Normal State (Oxford University Press, 2022)

Stacey, J., The Constitution of the Environmental Emergency (Hart Publishing, 2018)

Dyzenhaus, D. ‘The Politics of the Question of Constituent Power’, in Loughlin M. and Walker, N. ed., The Paradox of Constitutionalism: Constituent Power and Constitutional Form (OUP, 2007) 129-45;

Dyzenhaus, D.,‘The Compulsion of Legality’ in Ramraj V.V. ed., Emergencies and the Limits of Legality (Cambridge University Press, 2008).

Agamben, G. State of exception. (University of Chicago Press, 2008)

This episode was produced by Joel Kuhlin and the music is by Simon Hansson.

This podcast is produced by the End of Law research project in collaboration with the At the End of the World research programme.