Two Years Later: A Critical Analysis of the Impact of Spanish Law About COVID-19 on Religious Freedom
In a globalized world where great technological advances have led, in a relatively short time, to enormous development and multiple changes in our way of living, a microscopic organism, the SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19 virus, has caused a major health, social, and economic crisis, highlighting the fragil...
| Subtitles: | Special Issue on Governments’ Legal Responses and Judicial Reactions during a Global Pandemic: Litigating Religious Freedom in the Time of COVID-19 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2022
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| In: |
A journal of church and state
Year: 2022, Volume: 64, Issue: 4, Pages: 683-701 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Religious freedom
/ COVID-19 (Disease)
/ Pandemic
/ Law
/ Spain
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| IxTheo Classification: | KBH Iberian Peninsula SA Church law; state-church law |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In a globalized world where great technological advances have led, in a relatively short time, to enormous development and multiple changes in our way of living, a microscopic organism, the SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19 virus, has caused a major health, social, and economic crisis, highlighting the fragility of the human being, as well as challenging the effectiveness of legal resources and the ability of states to respond as guarantors of the social order. The first reaction of various governments was to approach the situation with a certain caution and a non-alarmist spirit, product of the “surprise effect” that did not make citizens consider the devastating consequences that would be yet to come. But the rapid spread of the virus accelerated the adoption of measures in accordance with available legal mechanisms and with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). COVID-19 has tested the strength of legal systems and the management capacity of governments in exceptional situations. The outbreaks have proven challenging not only in terms of government foresight and legal development to deal with them—as well as for the fact that they are regulated in one way or another by the legal systems of the countries—but by the way in which they are implemented. From a legal perspective, this is a double challenge. On the one hand, the challenge is to analyze the way in which governments have behaved under the legal cover of an emergency situation, providing for measures that have, in the case of Spain, affected the distribution of powers between the public administration, the parliamentary control, and the transparency or degree of collaboration with other institutions or social agents, such as religious communities. On the other hand—and it is most relevant for the purpose of this essay—the challenge is also to determine how the government’s provisions, which result from the assumption of extraordinary powers under a state of emergency, have affected the exercise of citizens' fundamental rights, including religious freedom. Taking into account the assumption of such extraordinary powers, the question arises as to what extent the exercise of governmental powers in this situation has been proportionate, consistent, and respectful of the constitutional framework ... |
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| ISSN: | 2040-4867 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: A journal of church and state
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jcs/csac046 |