Collateral damage: relaxing environmental and labour standards during the pandemic

In the name of “saving the economy”, the pandemic emergency has given governments unprecedented leverage to relax environmental protections as well as labour standards perceived as hindering the survival of business or revival of economic activity. The notion that emergencies give rise to exceptions to the rule of law is uncontroversial, as scholars have acknowledged for years, and as seen in recent decades in the “war of terror” for instance. Whilst in previous emergencies during our era the collateral damage typically hit human rights, the covid-19 plague has had significant economic ramifications as well from travel bans to lockdowns of nonessential businesses.