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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Emergency Next Time, Noa Ben-Asher Jan 2022

The Emergency Next Time, Noa Ben-Asher

Faculty Publications

This Article offers a new conceptual framework to understand the connection between law and violence in emergencies. It is by now well-established that governments often commit state violence in times of national security crisis by implementing excessive emergency measures. The Article calls this type of legal violence “Emergency-Affirming Violence.” But Emergency Violence can also be committed through governmental non-action. This type of violence, which this Article calls, “Emergency-Denying Violence,” has manifested in the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Article offers a taxonomy to better understand the phenomenon of Emergency Violence. Using 9/11 and COVID-19 as examples, the Article proposes …


Rationing, Racism, And Justice: Advancing The Debate Around 'Colourblind' Covid-19 Ventilator Allocation, Dorothy E. Roberts, Harald Schmidt, Nwamaka D. Eneanya Jan 2022

Rationing, Racism, And Justice: Advancing The Debate Around 'Colourblind' Covid-19 Ventilator Allocation, Dorothy E. Roberts, Harald Schmidt, Nwamaka D. Eneanya

All Faculty Scholarship

Withholding or withdrawing life-saving ventilators can become necessary when resources are insufficient. In the USA, such rationing has unique social justice dimensions. Structural elements of dominant allocation frameworks simultaneously advantage white communities, and disadvantage Black communities—who already experience a disproportionate burden of COVID-19-related job losses, hospitalisations and mortality. Using the example of New Jersey’s Crisis Standard of Care policy, we describe how dominant rationing guidance compounds for many Black patients prior unfair structural disadvantage, chiefly due to the way creatinine and life expectancy are typically considered.

We outline six possible policy options towards a more just approach: improving diversity in …