La pandemia, el estado de alarma y los jueces

Abstract

The pandemic that spreaded worldwide from the beginning of 2020 has moved the foundations of our society and has demanded public powers to adopt robust measures aimed at combatting it. The effects of the disease transmission and of those provisions laid down to restrain it have triggered and will be provoking intense legal disputes upon which courts will have to rule. This work exposes the main trends observed from March 2020 to May 2021. It focuses on the problems raised before the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court but it also reflects others that could have reached it. Taken together, it shows the legal tools used ant the open debates around them and their limits. It points out that they are not particularly different to those established in other European countries and it concludes that, in an emergency context, the judicial response has searched for a balance in the protection of confronted rights.

Keywords

• judicial review
• state of alarm
• pandemic
• freedom of movement
• health protection
• ratification of measures
• right to life