COVID-19 and United Kingdom’s legal regulation

Abstract

There has been an unprecedented impact on the all spheres of society from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As it has rapidly become a global pandemic, states around the world had to implement appropriate measures for responding to it containment and control. The different countries have used various approaches to responding to the pandemic. This article explores the UK's approach to the COVID-19 health emergency. More precisely, it will be analysed two main aspects: on the one hand, the acts that were adopted in the context of the health crisis and its assessment; on the other hand, it will be analysed attention is focus to the issue related to the limitation of fundamental human rights and freedoms. In the early stages of epidemic, UK implemented herd immunity strategies and its danger was initially underestimated by the authorities. Nevertheless, watching how things unfolded, from March 2020 onwards UK took drastic measures to prevent the spread of the virus. including country-wide lockdown and the powers of public administration entities are expanded. The sagnificant of these measures have been implemented using acts of soft law or non-binding guidelines and recommendations, the legal status of which is not entirely clear. In addition, preference was given to the adoption of new legislation to combat the pandemic, regardless of the existing legal basis for emergency situations. At the same time, the authority to take measures to contain and spread СOVID-19 was transferred to the executive authority with minimal parliamentary control.

Keywords

• covid-19 pandemic
• united kingdom
• state of emergency
• soft law
• legal measures
• limitation of human rights and freedoms