“Covid-19, rights and responsibilities” gathered in the Llíria Tourism Space and via streaming around 110 people, including public employees, the university community and citizens interested in the debate on the impact of the pandemic on the civil rights system , social and political.

The conference was held within the framework of the existing collaboration agreement between the Office of the Vice President for Territorial Projection and Society of the University of Valencia and the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, with the collaboration of the Law School and the Llíria City Council. The professor of political science and administration, Joaquin Martín Cubas, in the first round table moderated by Anselm Bodoque, head of the Training Service of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, focused his presentation on the elections in times of pandemic, exposed the need for weighting between the right in life and the basic fundamental right to elect citizens’ representatives through free and competitive elections and set out the WHO recommendations regarding the safe holding of elections (the promotion of voting for mail, increased security measures at voting centers). Among its conclusions, it should be noted that there have been no special difficulties in holding elections around the world and that no significant correlation has been shown between holding elections and the spread of COVID19 contagion.

The state ecclesiastical law professor, Yolanda García Ruiz, focused her presentation on the Spanish vaccination model built on the basis of voluntariness, freedom and respect for the autonomy of the patient. He explained that there have been voices that have opened the debate around the possibility of establishing a mandatory vaccination model, directly or indirectly. She was in favor of vaccination with strategies of voluntariness and public ethics and indicated that, if a change in the state model were adopted or a common European model of compulsory vaccination was developed, conscientious objection would be an aspect to consider as already it happens in models of compulsory partial vaccination such as the United States.

At the second table, moderated by Silvia Vernia, director of Prevention, Training and Documentation of the AVAF, Alberto Alonso, professor of criminal law, reflected on the dangers of punitive excesses that occur in times of crisis and the difference between disobedience to the authority and non-compliance with the rules, the specification of the typical requirements of the crime and the administrative offense of disobedience, provided for in the Organic Law for the Protection of Citizen Security; and the delimitation of the criteria to establish the border between the two figures to avoid abuses of power and reduction of fundamental rights.

Paz Lloria, professor of criminal law, explained, in a speech about cybercrime and COVID-19, that the pandemic has entailed long periods of home isolation that have promoted the increase in the use of the internet and the digital environment, and, at the same time, There has been a decrease in crimes committed in the analog environment, there has been an increase of which have been carried out in the virtual environment. Professor Lloria highlighted the causes, crimes and protection measures that must be implemented to reduce the incidence of this crime, which will become increasingly important in the future.

The third and final round table, moderated by the director of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, Joan Llinares, focused primarily on public procurement by M. Pilar Batet, head of the Procurement and Central Purchasing Service of the Provincial Council. Provincial of Castelló. In the presentation, he highlighted that public contracting is strategic, that in the pandemic situation there may have been an unjustified increase in emergency contracting that would have to be avoided in all cases. It is also clear that it is necessary to incorporate social, environmental, innovation and empowerment measures for SMEs into public procurement, especially in these times of crisis.

The conference in Llíria closed the presentation by Gabriel Doménech, professor of administrative law, with an analysis of the conditions under which public administrations would have to restore the damage caused by the decisions made in the management of the health crisis of COVID-19. In this sense, he considered two types of assumptions. In the first place, the cases in which the administrations caused damages accidentally, by action or by omission, without this damage having been considered in the administrative decision. And, secondly, the cases were studied in which the authorities knowingly caused damage to certain people or groups for reasons of public interest, imposing a special sacrifice on them. It was highlighted that the damages in each case are of a different nature and require an equally differentiated response.

Fecha de publicación: 14/05/2021