Open Access“This Is Not A Rule”: COVID-19 in England & Wales and Criminal Justice Governance via Guidance
Author(s) -
John Sorabji,
Steven Vaughan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
european journal of risk regulation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.243
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 2190-8249
pISSN - 1867-299X
DOI - 10.1017/err.2020.118
Subject(s) - soft law , hard law , legislation , criminal justice , corporate governance , political science , law , covid-19 , economic justice , government (linguistics) , criminal law , public law , business , medicine , international law , linguistics , philosophy , disease , finance , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
While soft law is an integral part of the efficient and effective functioning of public administration in England & Wales, the extent to which it was deployed in response to COVID-19 is striking, with over 400 pieces of "guidance and regulations" created. In this article, we consider the general place of soft law in administrative law in England & Wales and the broad regulatory framework, including soft law, that governs the COVID-19 pandemic. This allows us to take a deep dive into COVID-19 and the criminal justice system, showing how the senior judiciary relied predominately on soft law (judicial guidance and protocols) to manage the system (set against the backdrop of targeted legislation and a limited number of Practice Directions, which have the force of law). We argue that the senior judiciary's approach to the use of COVID-19 soft law has, in many ways, been more effective than that taken by the government. Yet there remains room for improvement, particularly in the nature of the judicial guidance issued and about what guidance was in place and when.