http://dx.doi.org/10.17176/20210309-153804-0 https://staging.verfassungsblog.de/covid-19-in-iceland-the-need-for-constitutional-justification-and-checks-and-balances/ COVID-19 in Iceland: The Need for Constitutional Justification and Checks and Balances Kristjánsson, Hafsteinn Dan eng 2021-03-09 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 COVID 19 Iceland Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 At the beginning of this pandemic in Iceland, the sense of urgency, uncertainty, and necessity seemed to be front and centre. New and far-reaching restrictions were seen, at least by some, as ‘a necessary evil’ in order to protect us from a new and, in a sense, invisible threat. The learning curve for the government was also steep. According to our law, the government had a wide discretion to address this novel situation. Less than a year later, this is still true to a certain extent. However, whereas the necessity to act was predominant in the first stages of the pandemic, questions of constitutionality and legality are now moving to the forefront.