Crises, Emergencies, and Constitutional Law

Interpretation and Adjudication in Europe

Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz, Zoltán Szente

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Law
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040604199
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Law
• Index: Law

It is a commonality to claim that we are currently living in an epoch of global crises that may perpetuate emergencies, blurring the boundaries between normalcy and exceptionalism. These circumstances often lead to the declaration of special legal orders in which state interference may be much deeper and restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms more severe than would be considered acceptable in normal times. This book presents a comparative study of emergency constitutional adjudication, as well as related theoretical issues. Focusing on methods of constitutional interpretation the book provides insight into the various national situations and the judicial practice of European courts. The volume contains 10 European country studies, prepared by internationally recognized scholars of emergency law and constitutional theory. Two further chapters examine the interpretative practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights, while the final chapter presents the results of the comparison and delivers the theoretical conclusions of the research. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers working in the areas of Comparative Constitutional Law and Politics, Emergency Studies, and Jurisprudence.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• 1 Introduction: Constitutional interpretation and emergencies in Europe
• 2 Have the German courts been too deferential in their COVID-19 cases?
• 3 Keeping balance in the pandemic: Constitutional interpretation in times of emergency in Austria
• 4 Constitutional interpretation in states of emergency in Italy
• 5 Constitutional interpretation in emergency in Spain
• 6 The COVID-19 case law of the Lithuanian Constitutional Court
• 7 Legal interpretation in times of crisis: How Polish courts navigate states of emergency
• 8 Constitutional interpretation in emergencies in the Czech Republic: Searching for an adequate level of judicial deference to the executive
• 9 Instrumental constitutionalism: The strategic use of interpretation by the Hungarian Constitutional Court under a special legal order
• 10 Constitutional interpretation in emergencies in Romania
• 11 Constitutional interpretation in emergencies: Croatia
• 12 The Court of Justice of the European Union in times of crisis: A study of emergency interpretation
• 13 Derogations and beyond: The European Court of Human Rights’ response to emergencies
• 14 Conclusion: Constitutional interpretation in times of crisis in Europe
• Index