Description

International law recognized the right of a government to use emergency powers that limit the enjoyment of recognized political and civil rights by the population under exceptional circumstances threatening the security and survival of the state. Yet the administration of such powers is at times controversial. The dilemma posed by emergency powers is that they invariably interfere with approved rights and freedoms in a democracy and may strengthen authoritarian tendencies in a society with a fragile democratic base. This volume is a comparative study to examine both in theory and in practice the employment of constitutional emergency powers in five polities to combat internal and/or external threats. The focus is only on limited governments and not on absolutist government free of legal constraints. The extraordinary measures are taken for special purposes with a certain time-limit and are not intended to be institutionalized on a permanent footing. Three Western democracies: Israel, Italy, and Northern Ireland, and two new economic powers in Asia, South Korea and Taiwan, are discussed. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.