On 17 March 2020, Tasmania entered a 'state of emergency' in response to COVID-19. Parliament stands adjourned, and the executive is regulating the crisis through delegated regulations that significantly limit civil rights and freedoms. Despite assurances that Tasmania's Subordinate Legislation Committee would scrutinise executive power throughout the crisis, its role has been limited, due to an overly prescriptive (and we argue incorrect) reading of Tasmania's scrutiny framework, which has not been properly reformed in several decades. This is a salient lesson as to why constitutional laws require regular review and modernisation, to ensure parliaments remain supreme even (and especially) during crises and emergencies.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	parliament, parliamentary scrutiny, parliamentary supremacy, executive powers, regulation, regulations, subordinate legislation
Research Division:	Law and Legal Studies
Research Group:	Public law
Research Field:	Constitutional law
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Justice and the law
Objective Field:	Legal processes
UTAS Author:	Gogarty, B (Dr Brendan Gogarty)
ID Code:	139698
Year Published:	2020
Web of Science® Times Cited:	1
Deposited By:	Law
Deposited On:	2020-06-26
Last Modified:	2021-03-19
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