AP/HUMA 4166 3.00

Pandemic Narratives and the Law

This course examines the legal measures implemented by authorities in response to historical and fictional pandemics and the role that legal concepts, institutions, and practices play in shaping a pandemic narrative. Every pandemic has a dominant characteristic that shapes its narrative, such as the breakdown of law and order, mass death, the othering of outsiders, the failure of medicine, or authoritarianism. Students will learn about the legal measures that were implemented in response to past pandemics and will consider how they contributed to the narratives about these pandemics. After exploring historical and literary pandemic narratives, the students will consider the extraordinary and unprecedented legal measures that were implemented by governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic narrative. The students will explore how this pandemic, one of the most disruptive pandemics in history, was shaped by the novel legal measures that were implemented by governments and other authorities in response to the pandemic. The students will survey and study some of the legal texts of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as legislation, trials, and caselaw. Students will acquire a general knowledge of the powers of governments during pandemics and will learn about the impact of this pandemic on civil liberties. Students will also consider whether an authoritarian model of public health, the model adopted by most governments, is compatible with the liberal concept of the individual in society.