Weekly Update 8 October 2021
Weekly Update 8 October 2021
Dear Friends,
The Coronavirus pandemic has severely tested all branches of Government. On the Parliamentary front, we bring you news of our joint webinar on Parliamentary Review of the Coronavirus Act 2020: Scrutiny Delayed, or Scrutiny Denied?, which will take place on 14th October, in the run-up to a debate in which Parliament must decide on the future of this far-reaching Act.
The Executive branch of Government, and new agencies such as NHS Test and Trace, have been at the heart of the day-to-day enforcement of public health measures. This week, we published a new report, The Contact Tracing Self-Isolation Regime in England: A Rule of Law Analysis, which applies a Rule of Law lens to events ranging from the introduction of manual contact tracing to the so-called "pingdemic" and exemptions for test events and specified workplaces.
We bring you news from another area of high Rule of Law tension in the judicial sphere, in the form of an interview with a leading academic about the Rule of Law crisis in parts of the EU. Yesterday, it was reported that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal had declared Poland's participation in certain provisions of the EU Treaties to be unconstitutional. This is likely to ratchet up tensions further.
Our Update also contains news of a Bingham Centre speaker participating in the Citizens' Assembly on Democracy, organised by the UCL Constitution Unit. Finally, we introduce the latest Modern Slavery PEC publications, which examine the role of consumers in combating modern slavery, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerability and resilience of certain communities in Kenya and Senegal at high risk of exploitation.
You can read the whole Weekly Update here.
