The State of Emergency in the Constitutional Law of Kosovo

Session

Law

Description

The pandemic caused by COVID 19, in addition to the casulties on people and damges on national and family economies, managed to seriously challenge democracies in general, and new ones in particular. Moreover, the need for the application of emergency measures or emergency power, put to the test even the states with glorious history in the rule of law. In this context there were great dilemmas and delays in the necessary response to emergency measures, especially in the most fragile democracies. Kosovo, as one of them, from the beginning of the news about the pandemic was faced with the dilemma: whether to apply the state of emergency, or the situation to cope with emergency measures of existing legislation. The dilemmas were due to the deep mistrust between the Prime Minister and the President, as well as due to the lack of knowledge about the constitutional government during the state of emergency, respectively about the constitutional power in case of emergencies. In this paper we will try to analyze this kind of power in our constitutional law, giving answers to the questions: what is the state of emergency and what are the events that can create it; what are the models of legal regulation of this state; what is the model that has been legitimized by our constitution and what are the shortcomings that may result in emergencies and which democratic principles and human rights may be affected and which are not. The treatment of the topic will be based on the comparative approach, as far as we can find similarities in the constitutions and theories of other states. We will also approach the topic in both doctrinal and normative terms.

Keywords:

state of emergency, emergency power, freedoms and human rights, natural disasters, constitution, democracy.

Session Chair

Visar Hoxha

Session Co-Chair

Sevdai Morina

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-437-96-7

Location

Lipjan, Kosovo

Start Date

31-10-2020 1:00 PM

End Date

31-10-2020 3:00 PM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2020.257

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Oct 31st, 1:00 PM Oct 31st, 3:00 PM

The State of Emergency in the Constitutional Law of Kosovo

Lipjan, Kosovo

The pandemic caused by COVID 19, in addition to the casulties on people and damges on national and family economies, managed to seriously challenge democracies in general, and new ones in particular. Moreover, the need for the application of emergency measures or emergency power, put to the test even the states with glorious history in the rule of law. In this context there were great dilemmas and delays in the necessary response to emergency measures, especially in the most fragile democracies. Kosovo, as one of them, from the beginning of the news about the pandemic was faced with the dilemma: whether to apply the state of emergency, or the situation to cope with emergency measures of existing legislation. The dilemmas were due to the deep mistrust between the Prime Minister and the President, as well as due to the lack of knowledge about the constitutional government during the state of emergency, respectively about the constitutional power in case of emergencies. In this paper we will try to analyze this kind of power in our constitutional law, giving answers to the questions: what is the state of emergency and what are the events that can create it; what are the models of legal regulation of this state; what is the model that has been legitimized by our constitution and what are the shortcomings that may result in emergencies and which democratic principles and human rights may be affected and which are not. The treatment of the topic will be based on the comparative approach, as far as we can find similarities in the constitutions and theories of other states. We will also approach the topic in both doctrinal and normative terms.