In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Themes

01 Apr

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Commission of Jurists. Ian Seiderman is the Legal and Policy Director of the International Commission of Jurists.] In evaluating the existing or potential human rights consequences of the varied State responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, a great deal of attention has been focused on the question of limitations or emergency-based derogations to human rights protections...

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01 Apr

[Elizabeth Stubbins Bates is a Junior Research Fellow in Law at Merton College, University of Oxford.] In the shock and fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleagues have begun to reflect on international human rights law’s continued importance: with analyses of due diligence, the right to life and right to health; derogations under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) (also see page...

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31 Mar

[Martins Paparinskis is Reader in Public International Law at University College London, Faculty of Laws.] ‘Is COVID-19 also disrupting the foundations of international law?’ The cliché on the topic safely out of the way in the first sentence, let me say that I will not add to discussion of how international law shapes possible responses in technical and institutional terms, nor will I say anything about...

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31 Mar

[Dina Lupin Townsend is a Research Consultant and Visiting Researcher at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She specialises in environmental law and human rights.]  Information and advice on COVID-19 has been changing at an alarming rate, but one message has remained consistent for weeks: wash your hands. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that ‘frequent and proper hand hygiene is one of the most important measures...

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31 Mar

[Dr. Mark Eccleston-Turner is a Lecturer of Law at the University of Keele, and the 2020 Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Georgetown.] Introduction On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The declaration of a PHEIC serves as a clarion call to the international community to provide political, financial, and technical support to a...

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31 Mar

[Pedro A. Villarreal is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.] The WHO's Oversight of the IHR's Obligations – Still No Health Police As explained in the previous post, the WHO cannot invoke legal responsibility when states breach the IHR. Reports of non-compliance have been presented at the World Health Assembly – without further action....

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31 Mar

[Pedro A. Villarreal is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.] In what is now an omnipresent claim, the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic currently rages throughout the globe. The epidemiological situation changes on a daily basis, often in dramatic fashion. Such fast-paced dynamism also encompasses the measures adopted by domestic authorities – for which there is a very...

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30 Mar

[Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli is Lecturer in Law and Deputy Director of the Climate Law and Governance Centre at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London.] What can a global health crisis tell us about international environmental law? To answer this question, this short piece maps the interconnections between the COVID-19 pandemic and international environmental law at three stages of the crisis: its origins, policy responses, and...

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30 Mar

[Frédéric Mégret is a Professor and William Dawson Scholar at the Faculty of Law, McGill University] One of the most characteristic symptoms of globalization was the fairly significant expatriation of large numbers of nationals for life, work and adventure. This was frequently coupled with a discourse emphasizing the fraying of national identification and the relativity of state affiliation. That discourse was deeply schizophrenic and remains so: it...

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30 Mar

[Philippe Sands is a Professor of Law at University College London and a barrister at Matrix Chambers.] The birth and transmission of the Sars-Cov-2 virus, and the COVID-19 illness it generates, and the response to it - are matters for international law. The full consequences will emerge over time, but certain observations may be proposed. It is plain that the health...

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30 Mar

[Barrie Sander is a Fellow at Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Brazil and Jason Rudall is Assistant Professor of Public International Law at Leiden University.] The entire symposium is accessible in PDF format here. As we write this introduction we are each sitting in different houses, in different countries, on different continents, and in different hemispheres. We could not be much farther apart. And...

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23 Mar

Recent weeks have witnessed the rapid global spread of a novel coronavirus known as COVID-19. At the time of posting (23 March 2020) the World Health Organisation has reported 294,110 confirmed cases and 12,944 deaths across 187 countries, areas or territories.  In response to the pandemic, Opinio Juris will host a symposium on COVID-19 and international law, kicking off next week on Monday, 30 March...

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