Local regulation in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic : dynamics of normative actions – LOCA-LEX COVID

Local regulation in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic : dynamics of normative actions
The present proposal is set in a rare - and to a large extent unprecedented - legal and political context: the mobilization of the notion of a « state of emergency » used, for the first time, for sanitary reasons. This situation has not only induced a significant normative production at the State level but has also led, in a more surprising way, to the massive enactment of local norms - prefectural and communal in particular. The duplication of national standards by a local level is a unique feature of this state of emergency episode: other historical cases have only resulted in the enactment of national measures.
In the continuity of the work of analysis and mapping of prefectural measures implemented in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in France, this project proposes to enrich the analysis already carried out by a multidisciplinary analysis (law-geography/mapping, political science, sociology) and to extend it to other levels of local decision-making. The extension of the analysis consists of a systematic survey - in addition to the prefectural measures already widely analysed - of the measures taken at regional level and a reasoned census of communal decisions (by representative sampling of communes). Once carried out, this census will be cross-analysed on the one hand with data of a demographic and political nature (age of the population, housing density, socio-professional composition, local political majority, etc.) and, on the other hand, with dynamic epidemiological data (evolution of the rate of contamination, hospitalizations, deaths, etc.).
By making it possible to account for possible differences in the management of the epidemic between different communities, this work would facilitate the general public's understanding of the importance of the local level in public action. In this respect, this work will provide data that will contribute to thinking about the level of decision-making most likely to respond effectively to a health crisis of the scale we have experienced (and therefore to thinking about the institutions capable of managing a possible return of the crisis).
The originality of this proposal therefore lies in its multidisciplinary nature, which makes it possible to consider the multi-factorial dimension of public action (epidemiological, economic, political-media, etc.). The interdisciplinary work envisaged here (mainly law/geography) is also an important opportunity to enhance a field of study that is not very well developed in France, although it is more present internationally (geography of law).
Through all these aspects, the proposal is part of a global approach to the epidemic, as suggested by Axis 4 of the APP, while seeking, as invited by Axis 3, to study its global dynamics.