States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

emergency’. 87 The former remains undeLined, whereas the latter
must be deLined by statute. The constitution of Portugal
distinguishes between a ‘state of emergency’ and a ‘state of siege.’
Thus, a state of siege or a state of emergency may be declared ‘in
cases of actual or imminent aggression by foreign forces, serious
threat to or disturbance of the democratic constitutional order or
public calamity’, whereas a ‘state of emergency is declared where
the circumstances mentioned in the preceding paragraph are less
serious’. 88
Multiple structure states of emergency are a feature of the Latin
and South American constitutions, which determine the extent of
emergency powers granted to the government depending on the
nature of the emergency. At least nine different states of exception
(estado
 de
excepción) can be found in these constitutions. These
include the state of siege (estado
 de
 sitio), state of emergency
(estado
de
emergencia), state of alarm (estado
de
alarma), state of
prevention (estado
 de
 prevención), state of defence (estado
 de
defensa) and state of war (estado
de
guerra). Thus for example the
constitution of Guatemala recognises Live distinct categories of
exception: state of prevention, state of alarm, state of public
calamity (estado
 de
calamidad
publica), state of siege and state of
war. 89 As Gross and Ní Aoláin note, “The mechanism used to
distinguish between the various situations is based on general
descriptions of factual circumstances that may lead to invoking
each particular state of exception. Such factual circumstances
include, inter
alia, external war, breach of the peace and the public
order, economic exigencies, and natural disasters, and threats of
87
Articles 96 and 103 respectively of the Dutch Constitution
88
Articles 19 (2) and 19 (3) of the Portuguese Constitution
89
Article 139 of the Guatemalan Constitution
70