The COVID pandemic revealed deep underlying challenges for the justification of public policy in a crisis. An unexpected crisis demands urgent, rapid action. But rapid action necessitates acting under severe uncertainty, with a limited idea of the implications of policy measures. This combination of urgency and uncertainty makes the ethical justification of policy measures very difficult. Normal procedures for policy justification require extended deliberation, or weighing people鈥檚 reasons for and against different policy options, or determining costs and benefits. All these lengthy procedures are ruled out in a crisis. But this shouldn鈥檛 mean that anything goes 鈥� drastic, crisis-containing policy measures are in particularly pressing need of adequate justification. My research aims to confront these challenges by exploring how we can find procedures or principles of justification implementable under urgency and uncertainty, and how we can avoid damaging public trust.
In 2025 I investigated these topics as a fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study (NIAS) (project: ). I'm also the coordinator of the research theme Health, Science and Society.