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Former Supreme Court justices Hale and Sumption are speaking to the @HLConstitution Committee shortly about emergency covid laws. I'll tweet some highlights, or you can watch it here: https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/ab33adbd-901f-4b80-a91f-9e71f6a9f23b
I expect they may start with a few words about their late colleague, Brian Kerr. A nice bit from his BBC Northern Ireland obituary: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-55143670
Lady Hale says that lockdown regulations have changed with "bewildering rapidity" and "the normal orderly process of scrutinising delegated legislation has not taken place".
Lord Sumption says that he makes no comment on the merits of this decision by Court of Appeal yesterday in the Dolan case, although he has "certain views" on it. https://twitter.com/Barristerblog/status/1333807076422914048
Hale and Sumption both say that Parliament probably expected the Civil Contingencies Act or Coronavirus Act to be used to authorise emergency powers, with more safeguards - not the Public Health Act.
Shout out to Ireland's coronavirus laws from former UK Supreme Court president Hale: "they have a five level framework of rules and regulations... which everybody knows, everybody understands, and they move between [levels]".
Sumption says it's "very unfortunate" that social distancing applies in the House of Commons, impeding normal debate: "does the high constitutional calling of parliamentarians prevail over their understandable concerns about their health or not?"
