Library of Essays on Emergency Ethics, Law and Policy – serie

This volume of leading scholarly articles addresses the international dynamics of emergency policy and practice. In a world of increasing technological, economic and political interdependency, it is no longer feasible for states to ignore the pervasive influence of globalisation. The crises wrought by industrial disasters, catastrophic weather events, pandemics, financial implosion and cyber intrusion now transcend and challenge national interests with increasing frequency. The case-studies collected here explore these global dimensions of crisis and the state through the lenses of planning and prevention, acute responses, recovery and reconstruction, and learning about crisis. This collection is essential reading for academics, policy officials and practitioners with an interest in emergency management, risk management and issues of national/global security. In original introductory and concluding chapters to the volume, Legrand and McConnell provide a critical perspective on the challenges that globalisation presents to policymakers under crisis conditions and signposts some of the emerging challenges to the state and international community.

The essays selected for this volume provide a comprehensive overview of the philosophical, ethical, historical, legal and practical issues in the diverse field of emergency law. The essays focus on terrorist attacks and natural disasters and highlight the roles of a vast variety of actors, such as the military, fire services, health services, police, volunteers and many more. The volume reveals legislative trends in emergency law by combining different national, international and comparative legal perspectives on a number of different types of emergency situations. In addition, essays taken from a practitioner perspective provide insight into civilian and military emergency management on the ground and the frequently reoccurring legal challenges. By comparing different national approaches to emergency law and emergency management, this collection of essays goes beyond the narrow view of one political system and draws instructive conclusions relating to the similarities and differences between a variety of common law and civil law systems and constitutional set-ups.

Emergencies are extreme events which threaten to cause massive disruption to society and negatively affect the physical and psychological well-being of its members. They raise important practical and theoretical questions about how we should treat each other in times of ’crisis’. The articles selected for this volume focus on the nature and significance of emergencies; ethical issues in emergency public policy and law; war, terrorism and supreme emergencies; and public health and humanitarian emergencies. Together they demonstrate the normative implications of emergencies and provide multi-disciplinary perspectives on the ethics of emergency response.