Pandemic Legalities : Legal Responses to COVID-19 – Justice and Social Responsibility

In this book, academic leaders in their respective fields of law address the Coronavirus crisis. Each chapter is designed as a thinkpiece, based on the contributor’s understandings and appreciations of their field. They reflect on the implications of the Coronavirus, express their anxieties about the development of policy and practice, and about the overweening, apparently neutral version of law and the economy which has taken root. Contributors draw on diverse resources, from survey evidence to economic rationalities. They are engaging with the current, reflecting on the past, and thinking about how the future response can be positive and productive. These chapters combine to offer challenges for action, and cause for optimism. The road ahead is likely to be exceptionally difficult. Capturing these difficulties is challenging, as this is also an exceptionally fast moving subject. The brave assertions by a journalist, in the opening paragraph of this introductory chapter, that the impact of Coronavirus is not experienced equally may well be replaced by another moment that both distracts, and focuses attention. What follows next, after Coronavirus, need not be as costly as what preceded it, and there are clear steps that may be taken in order to ensure that the legal system offers justice; that corporations and tax structures are based on values of true social responsibility; and, that the systems of health, care, housing, justice, and education are able to serve all who need it. Front Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series 3 Pandemic Legalities: Legal Responses to COVID- 19 – Justice and Social Responsibility 6 Copyright information 7 Table of contents 8 List of Figures and Tables 10 Notes on Contributors 12 Preface 14 Series Editor’s Preface 16 Part I Justice 30 1 Ruling the Pandemic 32 Introduction 32 Legal form and legal force 33 Residential security during the pandemic7 37 Conclusion 43 References 43 2 Remote Justice and Vulnerable Litigants: The Case of Asylum 44 Confusion 45 Anxiety 47 Mistrust 49 Disrespect 51 Communication difficulties 51 Distraction 53 Conclusion 54 Acknowledgements 56 References 56 3 Virtual Poverty? What Happens When Criminal Trials Go Online? 58 Introduction 58 All change! Responding to the pandemic 60 What’s wrong with the use of videolinks? 61 Retaining an open mind in times of crisis 64 An enhanced sense of engagement with the trial 64 Dignification of the defendant 66 Conclusion 68 References 69 4 Genera-Relational Justice in the COVID-19 Recovery Period: Children in the Criminal Justice System 70 Youth justice in the shadow of austerity 71 COVID-19 and children in the criminal justice system 73 Genera-relational justice in the COVID-19 recovery period 76 Conclusion 80 References 81 5 Racism as Legal Pandemic: Thoughts on Critical Legal Pedagogies 82 Introduction: race, racism and intersectionality 82 COVID-19: racialization and premature death 85 What now? Developing anti-racist legal education 88 Conclusion 93 References 94 6 Rights and Solidarity during COVID-19 96 Introduction 96 Key social claims during the COVID-19 pandemic 98 On rights consciousness 99 On solidarity (or obligation consciousness) 103 Rights in a period of heightened solidarity 107 References 108 7 COVID-19 PPE Extremely Urgent Procurement in England: A Cautionary Tale for an Overheating Public Governance 110 Introduction 110 Background 111 The weakened governance of centralized NHS procurement 113 Excessive centralization of NHS procurement 113 Inadequate, separate outsourcing of the influenza stockpile 114 Brexit as further erosion of NHS procurement governance 115 PPE procurement: NHS Supply Chain’s failed stress test 116 PPE procurement: a chancers’ paradise 117 System fixes 119 References 120 Part II The Social 122 8 Accountability for Health and the NHS under COVID-19: The ‘Left behind’ and the Rule of Law in Post-Brexit UK 124 Introduction 124 No legal protection for the ‘devolveds’: the McCord litigation 127 One rule for them, another for us 129 Government outside the law 131 Conclusion 134 9 COVID-19 in Adult Social Care: Futures, Funding and Fairness 136 Introduction: COVID-19 in care homes 137 The crisis in adult social care 140 Reforming adult social care 142 Relational 143 Responsive 144 Rights-oriented 144 Valued 145 Fair 145 Conclusion 146 References 147 10 Housing, Homelessness and COVID-19 148 Introduction 148 Housing, homelessness and COVID-19 148 Legacies 152 A new social politics of housing and homelessness 155 Conclusion 157 References 158 11 Education, Austerity and the COVID-19 Generation 160 Introduction 160 Education and the age of austerity 161 Education and the COVID-19 generation 164 Education and a post-COVID-19 future 165 References 170 12 What Have We Learned about the Corporate Sector in COVID-19? 172 Introduction 172 Lockdown and Leicester 173 Retail trading and COVID-19 173 The re-closure of Leicester 174 Boohoo and fast fashion in Leicester 176 Introducing Boohoo 176 Fast fashion in Leicester 179 Responsible investing and responsible consumption 182 Environmental, social and governance investing 182 Environmental, social and governance regulation 183 Consuming fast fashion 185 References 185 13 Social Security under and after COVID-19 188 Introduction 188 Context 189 Lesson one: poor law echoes 191 Lesson two: reductions in entitlement and access to justice 193 Lesson three: the policy process matters 194 Frontier problems 195 Algorithmic decision-making 196 Digital exclusion 198 Use of discretionary funds 199 Conclusion 201 References 201 14 Maintaining the Divide: Labour Law and COVID-19 204 Introduction 204 Locking down the labour force 205 Front-line workers 205 Working from home 206 Workers’ rights and employment status under market rule 207 COVID-19 short-term work schemes 208 Coronavirus job retention scheme and furlough 208 The self-employment income support scheme 211 Reflecting on the COVID-19 short-term work schemes 211 Undocumented workers 212 Conclusion: Continuing the divide under a global pandemic 214 References 215 15 From Loss to (Capital) Gains: Reflections on Tax and Spending in the Pandemic Aftermath 216 Introduction 216 The shift (in focus) from spending back to taxation 217 Back to the 1960s 219 ‘You’ve never had it so good’ 220 From the 1960s to the 2020s – comparing inequalities 223 Conclusion 224 References 225 Index 226 Back Cover 234 The effects of COVID-19 are visited disproportionately on the already disadvantaged. This important text maps out ways in which those already disadvantaged have been affected by legal responses to COVID-19. Contributors tackle issues including virtual trials, adult social care, racism, tax and spending, education and more. They reflect on the implications of COVID-19 and express concerns with policy and practice developments and with the neutral version of the law and the economy which has taken root. Drawing on diverse resources, this text offers an account of the damage caused by legal responses to the pandemic and demonstrates how the future response can be positive and productive. -- Provided by publisher This important text maps out ways in which the disadvantaged have been affected by legal responses to COVID-19. Contributors tackle issues including virtual trials, adult social care, racism, tax and spending, education and more. Offering an account of the damage, this book demonstrates positive and productive future responses.