Emergency Situations and Conceptions of Law

Based on the insights of legal theorists, the author of the current article constructs three conceptions of law that influence the consideration of emergency situations. In this sense, realistic, legalistic and mixed conceptions can be distinguished. None of them is satisfactory because they do not include an explanation of some of the existing forms of extraordinary regimes, nor do they consider any specific way of legal reasoning on emergency situations in a specific type of order. The author proposes the elimination of these deficiencies through a clearer classification of emergency regimes and orders. Searching for solutions for the improvement of three conceptions in this way leads to a more comprehensive theory of emergency situations that has advantages over any separate conception. This theory also includes the fourth position for emergency situations characteristic of constitutionalised legal orders.