Opportunistic Use of Covid-19 Protest Restrictions: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract This chapter concerns the opportunistic use of Covid-19 protest restrictions in comparative context. After a brief introduction, the chapter begins by taking note of theoretical contentions that emergency powers are potentially ripe for opportunistic use, and of a general factual claim that authorities used the pandemic to clamp down on criticism of the government. Section II demonstrates that there are some such examples. The examples are divided into three categories: measures enforced selectively against anti-government protests; ad hoc measures introduced to suppress specific protest action; and measures that could not reasonably prevent Covid-19 transmission. Ten countries are identified as being the locus of opportunistic protest restrictions. Section III seeks insight into such opportunism and asks three questions of the instances identified. First, it considers the relationship between opportunistic use of Covid-19 protest restrictions and authoritarian governance. Secondly, it considers the relationship between the type of emergency power relied upon and evidence of opportunism. Thirdly, the role of the courts in relation to protest opportunism is considered. The chapter concludes that pandemic opportunism occurred in a number of different ways in the context of protest restrictions but not enough to demonstrate that emergencies are ripe for opportunism. Furthermore, that where opportunism did occur this was more likely in authoritarian or hybrid regimes without robust judiciaries, and that authorities relied disproportionately on constitutional declarations.