Organized Irresponsibility and Communities of Risk in a Pandemic

Abstract

The paper examines challenges that the global COVID-19 pandemic has created for responsibility frameworks and practices in law. Building on Ulrich Beck's account of the risk society, it argues that the basic qualities of COVID-19 related risks, when juxtaposed with the standard legal framework for responsibility, result in organised irresponsibility in law (OI). Also the most common legal response to current problems, namely liability shields and waivers, contribute to OI. As a result, the paper presents the case for the metamorphosis of the current responsibility framework. Conceptually speaking, the metamorphosis should be based on the commonality of risk experience - on 'shared risk communities'. Possible normative ('common but differentiated responsibility' principle) and institutional consequences (alternative compensation programmes) are discussed in terms of their potential to contribute to metamorphosis. © Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2022.