TY - JOUR
AU - Finch, Naomi
AU - Halliday, Simon
AU - Tomlinson, Joe
AU - Meers, Jed
AU - Wilberforce, Mark
PY - 2022
DA - July
TI - Undermining loyalty to legality? An empirical analysis of perceptions of 'lockdown' law and guidance during COVID-19
JO - Modern Law Review
EP - 1318
VL - 85
IS - 6
DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12755 10.1111/1468-2230.12755
AB - This article substantially extends the existing constitutional and legal critiques of the use of soft law public health guidance in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon the findings of a national survey undertaken during the first wave of the pandemic in June 2020, it shows how the perceived legal status of lockdown rules made a significant difference as to whether the UK public complied with them and that this effect is a product of the legitimacy that law itself enjoys within UK society. Based on this analysis, it argues that the problems with the government's approach to guidance, that have been subjected to criticism in constitutional and legal terms, may also be open to critique on the basis that they risk undermining the public's loyalty to the law itself.
PB - Wiley
UR - https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/84951/
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER