Pandemic Litigation and the Rule of Law: A Global Comparative Survey of the Role of Courts During the Health Crisis

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to provide a survey of what the author calls ‘pandemic litigation’ using the wealth of data collected in The Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to Covid-19 and to conduct an analysis of such litigation. The analysis may be useful, the author argues, for several distinct purposes. The broadest is to gauge the role played by courts in pandemic responses in different countries from the prism of the rule of law, which relates, of course, to one of the main aims of the Lex-Atlas: Covid-19 project (the ‘LAC19’ project). Have courts played a relevant role? If so, have they enhanced or diminished the accountability of governments during their response to the pandemic? Have courts been material in shaping the package of measures adopted by governments? The author does not claim to have detailed and definitive answers to all these questions. What he rather does is to provide the reader with an entry point to the wealth of data collected in the Oxford Compendium and some tentative conclusions based on that survey.