The Right to Property in a State of Emergency

Abstract

The spread of the pandemic has drawn attention to the issues regarding the protection of fundamental human rights and liberties. Within the context of a state of emergency, which was declared in order to normalize the situation, there has been a surge of restrictions placed upon such human rights as the right to liberty, freedom of movement, the right to property and others. Nevertheless, it is of vital importance for legal states that, despite the state of emergency, interferences into fundamental rights not exceed the constitutional fra­me­work, and that individual rights not be disproportionately violated. The Constitution of Georgia allows for not only restriction, but also expropriation of private property during the state of emergency. Certainly, in every such case, decisions made by the government must follow the principle of proportionality in order to preserve the essence of the right to property. The point of scrutiny is whether or not the abovementioned criteria are met by the regulations regarding restrictions to the right to property imposed in the context of the pandemic.

Keywords

• constitutional law
• pandemic and law
• covid-19 and law
• human rights
• emergency powers
• state of emergency