ABSTRACT

This chapter presents some case studies that provide a picture of the rise of emergency powers. During 2012 and 2013, governments in Greece, Egypt and Canada adopted or promulgated emergency provisions in response to strikes and protests by working-class people and students against austerity measures. Arguments have begun to appear in favour of emulating the emergency action to rescue the financial markets by taking similar actions to respond the 'climate emergency' produced by economically generated global warming and other environmental damage. As well as being closely involved in the states of emergency declared by state governors in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and Baltimore, Maryland, in 2015, President Obama personally invoked emergency or extraordinary powers on numerous occasions. A long-suppressed Justice Department memorandum released in 2014 established that President Obama, in the most calculated and criminal manner, authorised the murder of an American citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi.