Regulatory issues and law enforcement practice of using coercive measures, such as isolation and involuntary hospitalization on epidemiological grounds

Abstract

The article examines the possibility of applying compulsory hospitalization and isolation to persons infected with the coronavirus, and to persons who have been in contact with the former. There are two mechanisms of coercion: coercive measures and mandatory measures. A distinction is made between the concepts of hospitalization and isolation, and legal subjects of the relevant legal relations are analyzed. The scientific and theoretical provisions of the article are illustrated by the author using the example of Russian legislation (codes and other federal laws, bylaws of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and Rospotrebnadzor, relating to both substantive law and procedural law), as well as practice that has developed or is only emerging in domestic courts. At the end of the article, the existing regulatory problems, in particular conflicting regulation, are described and some solutions are proposed.