Rights and freedoms: a study of their restrictions after the Covid-19 pandemic in Mexico

Abstract

This paper intends to contribute to the iusphilosophical debate consisting in reaching a notion of law, theoretically useful and convenient for communication. Based on the approach of Manuel Atienza and Juan Ruiz Manero’s “Theory of Legal Statements”, a propositional analysis is made of the situations created by the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico and its links with the axiological plane and normative provisions. During this study it is shown how, although a conceptual distinction can be made between rights and freedoms, these concepts are not unrelated to each other; which allows exposing and understanding the role of principles as a directive and evaluative dimension of legal norms and, as such, highlights the intrinsic link between law and freedoms, in the same way that occurs between rules and principles; thus providing knowledge for legal discourse, judicial decision making and the design of socioeconomic policies in the pandemic and post-pandemic context.