Some Remarks on Book Critical Constitutionalism: Ideas for Constitutional Transition in the Post-COVID-19 Era by Diego Valadés

Abstract

The present paper is a review essay focused on the book – scientific monograph Critical Constitutionalism: Ideas for Constitutional Transition in the Post-COVID-19 Era written by Mexican legal scholar Diego Valadés in year 2021. The book is a brief but incisive analysis of how Mexico (mis)managed the global COVID-19 pandemics. The author showed that many actions and measures taken by the Mexican State during the state of emergency declared due to the COVID-19 pandemics were problematic for various reasons, both constitutional/legal and extraconstitutional/extralegal ones, and resulted from long-term, serious and complex shortcomings of the Mexican political system, primarily based on the Mexican Federal Constitution of 1917 and related federal legislation. However, the author’s criticism of the Mexican constitutional/political system is constructive, as he makes useful suggestions to overcome (or, at least, to reduce) its shortcomings throughout the book.