Seite - 176 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE176 exécutif s’est alourdi. Une telle situation d’urgence ou exceptionnelle justifie-t-elle ce changement  ? Ce chapitre explore cette question, en analysant le devoir de gouverner, le devoir de gouverner dans le res- pect de la primauté du droit, la nature contraignante de tout pouvoir d’urgence ou exceptionnel et le devoir qui incombe à ceux et celles qui exercent un pouvoir extraordinaire de revenir à la normale dans la mesure où les circonstances le permettent. The Duty to Govern The COVID-19 pandemic vividly captures the need for coordi-nated action in the community. Absent a pattern of coordination, the life and health of the community’s members would be at radically increased risk. The candidate patterns of coordination all contemplate coordination between means and ends—how to flatten the curve, how to increase the maximum capacity of our hospitals, how to address economic losses—and between persons for whose good the ends are sought—who is to be classified as an essential worker, who is to be tested, who is to self-isolate. The range of possible patterns of coor- dination is highlighted by the different strategies pursued in differ- ent jurisdictions. Even if some fare better by the metrics of health, or the economy, or liberty of movement, or government support, no one pattern of coordination can be said to be superior to all the others in respect of every metric taken together. Yet, despite the absence of a single right answer to the question of which pattern of coordination should be adopted, the failure to settle on any one pattern would be unreasonable. Any one member of the community can contemplate indepen- dently of the others which pattern of coordination should be the com- munity’s, with the more imaginative identifying a greater range of candidate patterns. But that independence cannot be maintained when one moves beyond contemplating different possibilities to determin- ing which pattern of means-to-ends and which roles for which per- sons should be favoured, not only by oneself, but by everyone. The practical question confronting each member of a community is not best captured as “What should I do?” but rather as “What should we do?” What should we do about social gatherings, public schools, and our borders? Without settling on a pattern, the advantages of coordi- nation will be frustrated or realized imperfectly or too late. What is more, coordination in the community will be desirable not only for