State of Exception, Media, Vagueness, and COVID-19: Looking at the Indeterminacy of Pandemic Law through the Italian and Hungarian Experiences

This chapter moves from Italian legal philosophers’ thoughts on the indeterminacy of Italian law during the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the considerations that uncertainty is, to some extent, part of the physiology of law and can therefore constitute a constructive element of flexibility in times of pandemic, but it should be recognised that cases of pathological uncertainty exist and that indeterminacy leads to forms of self-restraint that one can also depict using the expression ‘self-censorship’. This chapter argues that an example of a provision adopted during the pandemic that seems to go beyond the physiology of law and induce forms of self-censorship is the Hungarian measure providing that anyone who “distorts” or publishes “false” information on the pandemic can be punished with five years in jail, whose vague expressions produce indeterminacy. The indeterminacy of this measure is reinforced by the indeterminacy of the context in which it was adopted, consisting of both the legal framework within which it is enacted and the pre-pandemic Hungarian media law.