The coronavirus pandemic will remain the dominant subject in 2021 and will have a direct and indirect impact on people's lives in many ways. The Faculty of Law is addressing the relevant legal issues, see more on our homepage ius-coronae.

The core area of research at the Professorship of Private Social Law is directly affected by the comprehensive challenges that the measures to contain the pandemic pose for employment and social security law, among other things.

Shortly after the member of the Federal Council decided on the extraordinary situation in March 2020 and brought public life to a standstill for the most part, Prof. Kurt Pärli, together with Prof. Thomas Geiser and Prof. Roland Müller, took an in-depth look at the effects of the measures on employment law in the Jusletter article Clarification of employment law issues in connection with the coronavirusand has since remained a critical companion of the Covid-19 legislation from the perspective of employment and social security law (see further articles: New situation: inability to work due to Covid-19; COVID-19 and Labor Law: Switzerland; Corona ordinances of the Federal Council on unemployment insurance and loss of earnings; Social security claims on an emergency law basis).

Under the title Corona and the world of work: stocktaking and assessment of the current legal situation, Kurt Pärli and Jonas Eggmann present and discuss current labor law issues in detail in the Jusletter of February 8, 2021. In the podcast, Prof. Kurt Pärli also discusses the 2020 revisions to unemployment insurance and disability insurance as well as the new bridging pension for older employees.

The current focus is also on issues of surveillance, data protection and privacy, which are arising to a greater extent in view of (digitalized) working from home, and are putting the spotlight on aspects of employment law that have previously (wrongly) received rather neglected public attention. The examination of the consequences of the pandemic in terms of employment and social security law ties in with the research focus on illness and health in the employment relationship that has already passed.

Furthermore, the professorship for private social law would like to use an interdisciplinary approach to examine the thesis that people are more willing to comply with public authority recommendations and regulations if the behavioral requirements are legally correct and non-discriminatory, if they respect the protection of personal details and privacy and if their economic existence is secured (e.g. social security benefits and protection against dismissal during quarantine). The jurisprudential contribution passes in the review of the legal basis of the measures (with special consideration of their emergence and enforcement in the "emergency law regime"), further sociological and psychological contributions would be desirable.

A first step towards this investigation has been taken: Kurt Pärli has supplemented the Swiss TPH COVCO-Corona Immunitas study for the cantons of Canton of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft(project leader Prof. Probst-Hensch) with legal questions. The results were published at the end of November 2021: Final report, press release.

Prof. Pärli co-chairs the international research group "New Challenges of Social Security" together with Prof. Masaiko Iwamura (Japan). Among other things, the effects of Covid-19 on social security law issues in the respective countries of the members of the International Society for Labor Law and Social Security Law are being researched. The final report was presented at the XXIII ISLSSL World Congress in Lima from September 7 - 10, 2021 (virtual implementation). The final report and presentation can be found here: Final Report and Presentation.

With its jurisprudential and critical monitoring of the effects and provisions of the Corona pandemic, the Professorship of Private Social Law is helping to ensure that the negative consequences of the restrictions are kept within the narrowest possible limits and are not distributed unilaterally at the expense of certain groups.(https://ius.unibas.ch/de/forschung/ius-coronae/)