A state of emergency is a legal clause that grants governments powers they wouldn’t otherwise be able to use. This can include confiscating property, ordering civilians to evacuate, or approving large expenses without prior counselling or due process. It can also allow them to ignore some laws or constitutional rights.
Most countries have provisions on the state of emergency in their constitutions. These are typically in four broad areas: (1) the situations that justify its declaration; (2) the conditions for it to be declared; (3) the delegation of power and (4) limitations on its use (such as provisions for legislative or judicial oversight). The situations that justify the state of emergency are often intricately linked to national historical experience. For example, most constitutions stipulate war, external aggression or armed rebellion as a situation that justifies the state of emergency. Others refer to natural disasters and even a health crisis.
Even when constitutions provide robust safeguards on a state of emergency, it is not always implemented in practice. A number of governments have used this as an excuse to sidestep democratic and judicial processes and to suppress internal dissent, for example during the Black Power Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago or in 1970 in Mauritius during a labour dispute.
The granting of extra powers during a state of emergency can be quite a slippery slope. It is hoped that the Council of Ministers only uses these powers to protect the public from danger, and that it does not go too far beyond this. The Council of Ministers has a right to adopt ordinances with the force of law during a state of emergency, but these ordinances can only be approved by a two-third majority in the House of Representatives.
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