JJUA54039U States of Emergency, Emergency Powers, and Liberal Democracy
Since 11 September 2001 and the beginning of the so-called “war
against terrorism,” there has been much political, legal, and
academic debate about just how the State can respond to
international terrorism. This new threat tests the State’s ability
to balance security with individual rights, as well as arguably
challenges the power of the Nation-State itself. This course will
accordingly examine different theories of emergency powers, using
various international case studies of exceptional crises. Focus
will therefore be on how different national responses to
exceptional national security threats have challenged (and possibly
either undermined or reinforced) liberal concepts of democracy and
the rule of law and, in some cases, international human rights law.
In order to better understand how the State can or should respond
to international terrorism or other perceived security threats,
this course will examine the major theoretical paradigms of
emergency powers: the “extra-legal” model, the “legislative” model,
the “neo-Roman” model, the “rule-of-law” model, and the
“authoritarian” model. In turn, these models will be considered in
connection with specific historical events, in order to assess
their effectiveness and drawbacks in simultaneously responding to
emergencies and protecting liberal democratic values.
To this end, the course will focus on theoretical readings about
emergency powers, together with statutes, court judgments, and
historical accounts of extraordinary events. Case studies will
include President Lincoln’s detention orders during the American
Civil War, British and American internment laws during World War
II, separatist violence in Canada, the fall of the Weimar Republic,
and finally British anti-terrorism laws and the U.S. prisons at
Guantanamo Bay. Each case study will illustrate a different theory
of emergency powers. They are therefore the starting points for an
extended and fundamental re-evaluation of the stability and
efficiency of liberal constitutional order in times of
crisis.
- Identify and analyze complex and concrete legal
problems surrounding different states of emergency, in their
historical contexts;
- Present the wider policy and legal arguments behind the
different theoretical models of emergency powers;
- Put the current controversies about States responses to terrorism
into historical, national, and international perspective,
in order to test the relevance of different emergency powers
theories;
- Analyze the impact of different emergency powers upon the concept
of liberal democracy and the rule of law, consider their
links to illiberal or authoritarian regimes, and
understand their relationships to the nature of the State
itself;
- Argue carefully and logically for and against specific
legal positions in factual context, present the
theoretical foundations for those arguments, and make reasoned
choices in terms of public policy;
- Formulate and communicate ideas and legal issues;
- Utilize international and foreign legal materials, and
historical accounts, in a coherent, competent, and professional
way
- Category
- Hours
- Preparation
- 241
- Seminar
- 34
- Total
- 275
Enrolling as a Single Master Level/ Credit Student:
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For further
information
- Credit
- 10 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written examination, 1 dayAssigned individual written assignment, 1 day
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Exam period
May 23-24, 2017
- Re-exam
August 1-2, 2017
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- JJUA54039U
- Credit
- 10 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree MasterFull Degree Master choice
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Spring
- Schedule
- A2
- Continuing and further education
- Price
DKK 10.000
- Study board
- Law
Contracting department
- Law
Course responsibles
- Ebrahim Afsah (13-696676656c6d7132656a77656c446e7976326f7932686f)