Condition Critical

Abstract

The introduction to the ‘Condition Critical’ symposium explains the background to the series on the climatic and pandemic crises at the beginning of the 2020s. What is the role of the law in times of crisis? How does this force for continuity, predictability and order react to the discontinuity characteristic of disasters? The suspension of the law or its day-to-day operations is a moment of extreme danger, rivalling that of the disaster itself, in the licence it gives to powerful actors, governments and others to exercise unfettered force. Yet it also presents institutions, communities and disruptors with opportunities for reinvention and renewal. In this symposium, legal, political science, clinical psychology, history and sociology researchers investigate critical conditions from pandemic responses and extreme weather to terrorist attacks and parental disputes. Law courts have responded by modifying their operations and applying new technologies. This was observed in the United Kingdom and in cross-border European proceedings. A major terrorist trial in France established new architectural and information and communication technology configurations. Courts and the technologies they use can also cause critical incidents, including the disruption of artificial intelligence applications and the critical condition of the Italian justice system. Research into the Portuguese family courts investigated whether they alleviate or exacerbate disputes over the healthcare of children. Government responses to extreme weather events and the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are studied at the intersection of law and politics in Australia. The individualising forces of neoliberal finance and law, and of urban communication technologies are criticised as dysfunctional when crises require solidarity.