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Apocalypse Now?

Initial Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic for the Governance of Existential and Global Catastrophic Risks

In: Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies
Authors:
Hin-Yan Liu Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark hin-yan.liu@jur.ku.dk; kristian.lauta@jur.ku.dk; matthijs.maas@jur.ku.dk

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Kristian Lauta Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark hin-yan.liu@jur.ku.dk; kristian.lauta@jur.ku.dk; matthijs.maas@jur.ku.dk

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Matthijs Maas Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark hin-yan.liu@jur.ku.dk; kristian.lauta@jur.ku.dk; matthijs.maas@jur.ku.dk

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Abstract

This paper explores the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic through the framework of existential risks – a class of extreme risks that threaten the entire future of humanity. In doing so, we tease out three lessons: (1) possible reasons underlying the limits and shortfalls of international law, international institutions and other actors which Covid-19 has revealed, and what they reveal about the resilience or fragility of institutional frameworks in the face of existential risks; (2) using Covid-19 to test and refine our prior ‘Boring Apocalypses’ model for understanding the interplay of hazards, vulnerabilities and exposures in facilitating a particular disaster, or magnifying its effects; and (3) to extrapolate some possible futures for existential risk scholarship and governance.

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