The limits of legal solutions

Abstract

Given that the World Health Organization says the coronavirus is here to stay and we must learn to live with it, partly as vaccines and treatments may take years, how can the need to safeguard our physical, political, and constitutional health be balanced? If the current constitutional debate is to be resolved constructively, the solution needs to meet three requirements that could be difficult, not necessarily impossible, to achieve at once. First, due to the pandemic’s likely longevity, questions related to the election schedule should be considered. This raises epidemiological considerations with legal implications: When does this pandemic constitute force majeure? What conditions justify election postponement? And who assesses those conditions? What is the fall-back plan if the pandemic does not end within months?