Published In
Transnational Environmental Law
Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
2022
Subjects
climate emergency, emergency powers, disaster law, public law, Commonwealth
Abstract
Climate emergency declarations occupy a legally-ambiguous space between emergency measure and political rhetoric. Their uncertain status in public law provides a unique opportunity to illuminate latent assumptions about emergencies and how they are regulated in law. This article analyzes climate emergency declarations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. It argues that these climate emergency declarations reflect back a set of paradoxes about how emergencies are governed in law—paradoxes about defining the emergency, its relationship to time and who gets to respond to the emergency and how. These paradoxes productively complicate long-held and over-simplified assumptions about emergencies contained in public law. They allow us to see the complex ways in which public law regulates emergencies—a necessity in a climate-disrupted world.
Citation Details
Jocelyn Stacey, "The Public Law Paradoxes of Climate Emergency Declarations" ([forthcoming in 2022]) Transnat'l Envtl L.