Today it is time to talk again about the legal consequences of Covid-19. We live in turbulent times, full of uncertainty, or at least, these have suddenly become more visible to us, and of unknowns that today seem far from being solved without a change in the generality of things. Some of them that until now seemed immovable. If, in general, predicting the future has been a useless exercise, it has not been less necessary to try “to fail better“, as Samuel Beckett would say, and today, in the face of the perplexity that surrounds us, it is even more indispensable.
“Landscape after the battle” was the title of the Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wadja’s 1970 film. The film was not about what remains after a convulsive time, but about what remains and the quality of what remains. Will we return to Lampedusa’s famous phrase “everything must change so that nothing changes” or will we be able to change some of the fundamental things that, as solid as we believed them to be, we had totally forgotten? Fortunately, some of them, hopefully the most important ones, show a “supreme will to endure”.
“Landscape after the battle” was the title of the Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wadja’s 1970 film. The film was not about what remains after a convulsive time, but about what remains and the quality of what remains. Will we return to Lampedusa’s famous phrase “everything must change so that nothing changes” or will we be able to change some of the fundamental things that, as solid as we believed them to be, we had totally forgotten? Fortunately, some of them, hopefully the most important ones, show a “supreme will to endure”.
The legal consequences for covid-19 have to be one of them. If the past state of alarm has turned out to be a kind of parenthesis (and let us not forget that like the empty set, an empty parenthesis is meaningless, it has to be filled with things and the longer it is, the more things it is filled with and many of those we would not want) when it closes, things will not be the same and our legislation is rapidly adapting to provide solutions, correct and improve the ravages of a situation that was unimaginable until recently.
Things will have to change, they already are, and we do not yet know the direction they will take, but we will have to take our chances on the fly so that we can build, not necessarily rebuild, the future in which we want to participate, or rather in which we want to be part of its outcome.
There is no doubt that the business world has to rethink its functioning, everything points to the fact that the business world will become even more global despite the attempts of nationalism and populism in favor of misunderstood localisms.
There may be ideological frontiers but hardly business ones, remembering that phrase of Saki who said about patriotism: “the dresses are made in Paris but she wears them with a strong English accent” we will put the accent at will but the manufacturing will be another thing.
Small retailers will also have to rethink their approach to the increase in home delivery services, large supermarkets will have to adapt to new restrictions and forms of leisure, supermarkets will have to face online sales, which, among other things, will make it possible to compare prices of other brands and chains on the spot.
The concept of loyalty to a brand or a name will have to be changed, companies will not only have to implement social responsibility programs, but they will have to believe in it, internalizing it in such a way that it will not be necessary to talk about it, but it will transpire all their activity.
Teleworking (not necessarily “work at home” as there will be a wide range of places to work temporarily) will reduce the need for space in companies and therefore real estate companies will have to modify in some aspect their business model and also, if contacts are produced in a different way, it will be necessary to change the way of managing teams, online education will increase with the digital adaptation of schools and universities, The concept of university “elite” is more than likely to have to be rethought, because if the contents are the same, easily available digitally and interaction is reduced, the differences between them will also change, not to mention the need for universities in each provincial capital or the quota of students in the classrooms, just to mention the most obvious ones.
Experts and analysts surely have many more in their heads, and let’s add to that all those that no one is able to see yet.
In all this whirlwind of changes – we should call them “evolutions” – the legal consequences for Covid-19 will play a fundamental role, both as a structure and framework in which commercial, service, production, supply, labor or financial relations are organized; as a tool for organizing relations between the parties among themselves and with third parties; and as a structure in which to define the method of conflict resolution (whether judicial or alternative, arbitration, mediation or conciliation), i.e. throughout the entire chain of production, distribution and remuneration for simplifying.
And what would be the legal consequences of Covid-19? The near future will demand radical changes and adaptations in the legislations of all countries, and at forced marches, it will demand flexibility, it will demand above all the ability to respond to situations that are still unpredictable. The legal consequences of covid-19 are somewhat complex, I know, but if it has done so continuously in the past, there is no reason why it cannot do so now.
What will undoubtedly remain among these legal consequences for Covid-19, will be the need for the law to offer legal certainty, predictability and a stable framework in which human relations can be born, grow and develop in the best possible way, that is, to put it on an economic basis, The emergence of the entire industrial, commercial and service fabric, whether analog or digital, and it is certain that in the face of this challenge, the law will be where it should be because in the end, with all the mistakes that one may want to make, which will not be few because no one is free from that, there is “a supreme will to endure above all changes”. Above all change, not by preventing any change but by flying over it, which is the best way to allow and defend it.
Time will tell.
