Dr Federica Cristani is Jean Monnet Visiting Lecturer at the V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine) and co-editor of the ENTER Policy Brief Series (COST Action CA17119 - EU Foreign Policy Facing New Realities)
You are researcher of international public law and you have taught and researched in many places and universities, including the Pázmány Peter Catholic University and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. Nowadays, however, you are staying in your hometown, Verona that has been hit hard by the coronavirus. How did life change and what in your view are the biggest challenges in the midst public health crises?
Thank you very much for having reached me out for this interview. Yes, currently I am in Verona, in the Veneto Region of Italy, which, as many other countries in Europe and around the world, is under lockdown. For sure, it is a big change and challenge for everyone, primarily from an emotional point of view, since we are witnessing everyday the development of this global health crisis and its human costs everywhere.
Also when the period of the pick health emergency will be over, and we hope as soon as possible, it is very likely that we have to keep some precautionary measures, and some restrictions will remain, maybe for some months; this will certainly affect our personal and professional lives, the way we maintain our personal relations and we go on with our work, with more and more dependency on technological devices and internet-based activities. In this respect, it remains to be seen whether everyone will be able to afford such devices, and for sure governments will be faced with such (and many other) problems, in order to avoid enhancing social differences among the population. Furthermore, as we are seeing, the COVID-19 pandemic is not only a public health crisis, but also an economic and social crisis.
European and non-European countries are both going to face financial-economic and other hardships due to the coronavirus pandemic. In order to protect the life and health of their population, they are forced to introduce measures as social distancing, quarantines and even state control of certain strategic companies. At the same time, they continue to have various international legal obligations such as investment obligations. What might be the relevant principles of international law that can relieve the international responsibilities of states? Is it an unusual situation in the eyes of international law?