Lessons From the Pandemic on Civil Liberties and Social Justice - Future Global Shock Series

Lockdowns and other restrictions , imposed as the result of the pandemic, eroded individual and collective civil liberties in an unprecedented way.

In Scotland there were two emergency bills passed within the first month of the pandemic, as well as legislative consent being given to a similar bill from Westminster. These covered a wide range of issues including freedom of information, travel, working from home, suspension of courts, limits on numbers at weddings and funerals, closure of shops, offices and places of worship, registration of births and deaths and many other normal activities.
These laws were followed by a wide range of regulatory instruments that dealt with the detail of restrictions ranging from shutting cinemas to , later in the pandemic, closing hours for pubs.

Such restrictions were not unusual - during the pandemic virtually every country curtailed established freedoms for its citizens and some are still doing so. That has led to considerable unrest in certain places and movements to overturn the rules, such as the "Truckers Protest" in Canada.
The action of Governments world wide, and reactions to them, have raised important questions about the preservation of human rights during times of crisis. In partnership with the Campaign for Social Sciences and the Scottish Council on Global Affairs, our fourth event will consider questions such as:
Did governments restrict first and think about the implications later?
Did some governments use the pandemic as an excuse for the introduction of more permanent controls, changing the balance between the citizen and the state? and
In the event of another global shock, will governments take the same approach, or find other ways to ensure societal compliance with public health and other imperatives.

With contributions from:
Professor Peter Jackson, Chair in Global Security (History); Executive Director of the Scottish Council on Global Affairs
Dr. Kathryn Nash, Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Edinburgh Law School
Professor Adam Tomkins, Professor - John Millar Chair of Public Law , University of Glasgow
Dr Sally Witcher OBE, consultant in equality and inclusion; former Chief Executive Officer of Inclusion Scotland
Professor Graeme Roy, Dean of External Engagement, University of Glasgow
Professor Michael Russell, former Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations of Scotland in the Scottish Government