ABSTRACT
When lockdown was envisaged as the appropriate mechanism to mitigate the dissemination of COVID-19, national governments had to find a legal justification that, at the same time, meet the requirements of political legitimacy. The state of exception was the solution. This chapter pays detailed attention to constitutional exceptionalism. It starts by addressing the rationale of the state of exception within the context of the pandemic crisis. At a later stage, the chapter engages on a dialogue between critics and supporters of constitutional exceptionalism. Both arguments are surveyed so that the reader becomes equipped with contrasting perceptions of a highly sensitive issue that affects him/her. Since the state of exception materialised in restrictions to basic civil rights, the chapter does not avoid the question of how constitutional exceptionalism might have impacted the EU. The relevant question is to find out whether the dispossession of the EU when the declaration of the state of emergency is at stake (because this is a national prerogative) affects European integration somehow.
