States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

to undertake, these jurisdictions may allow a limited power of
declaration and even rule‐making to the executive, subject to
ratiLication by the legislature.
ReLlecting strong political traditions of executive leadership, in
Latin and South American constitutions, as well as those of former
communist States in Eastern Europe, 108 the power of declaration
is vested in the President. Generally, Presidents under these
systems are under no formal obligation of prior consultation or
approval. Some however, do impose obligations in respect of
formal consultation with Cabinet, and notiLication and approval of
the legislature. In France, the President is not required to obtain
prior approval of either his Cabinet or of Parliament before a
declaration of emergency, but he is expected to consult the Prime
Minister and the Conseil
Constitutionnel. 109 The French President,
moreover, merely notiLies Parliament of a proclamation; there is
no further role for the legislature, although Parliament meets
automatically and cannot be dissolved while the emergency
powers are in force. 110 Likewise, the Sri Lankan President has an
absolute discretion not only to proclaim a state of emergency, but
also to legislate in the form of emergency regulations, subject to
parliamentary approval of the proclamation. 111
108
Ganev (1997) op cit., pp.589‐592
109
Articles 16 (1), 19 of the French Constitution; see John Bell (1992)
French
Constitutional
Law
(Oxford: Oxford UP): p.16
110
Ibid
111
Article 155 of the Constitution, discussed at length in Chapter 5, infra;
See also J.A.L. Cooray (1995) Constitutional
and
Administrative
Law
of
Sri
Lanka (Colombo: Sumathi Publishers): Ch.31; Radhika
Coomaraswamy & Charmaine de los Reyes (2004) ‘Rule
by
Emergency:
Sri
Lanka’s
Postcolonial
Constitutional
Experience’ I.CON, Vol.2, No.2, 272
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