In LAW346/LLM546, students will look at a number of case studies where law has been used in an emergency to undermine the liberal legal order. It starts off by looking at the situation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. It also looks at martial law in the empire, and examples of emergency power in Australia. This discussion ranges from the 1950s, with the government’s banning of the Communist Party, to more recent examples during the ‘war on terror.’ It comes down to this: how do liberal democracies prevent governments from acting in a way that violates the rule of law and our individual liberties at a time when those very liberties are thought to be under threat? Students will see it is a complex struggle and depends on a strong commitment by the judiciary to ‘hold the line.’ Without judicial commitment to a meaningful version of the rule of law, things can go wrong and fast. The main theme of the unit is how governments balance the need to preserve order in a crisis with our commitment to the rule of law.

Dr Graham’s interest in emergency power stems from two places. Firstly, he grew up in Northern Ireland at the end of a period locals call ‘The Troubles.’ Dr Graham says ‘I didn’t know any better as a child that the things I saw on an everyday basis were unusual. But, growing up, I was fascinated by the state of emergency that I had come through. Its legacy continues to affect the whole of Ireland today, and it’s an incredibly difficult one. We see that more starkly now with the tensions unleashed by the Brexit referendum.’ Secondly, Dr Graham started his law degree a few years after 9/11 and was always drawn to public law. At that time, public law academics were transfixed by the work of people like Carl Schmitt (who we look at through the unit) as a way to explain the west’s legal response to the terror threat at that time.

Dr Graham says that anyone with an interest in constitutional law, as well as politics or history, will enjoy LAW346/LLM546 (emergency powers). The unit will be like working through a puzzle, as questions arise such as how do we protect our liberal values without simultaneously undermining – or even destroying – them when they come under threat? It’s a tension that has existed for thousands of years and will continue to absorb public lawyers for many years to come. Dr Graham loves to debate these questions with students, so if you enjoy a good legal argument too then you’re encouraged to take a look!