From International Sanitary Conventions to Global Health Security: The New International Health Regulations

In May 2005, the World Health Organization adopted the new International Health Regulations (IHR), which constitute one of the most radical and far-reaching changes to international law on public health since the beginning of international health cooperation in the mid-nineteenth century. This article comprehensively analyses the new IHR by examining the history of international law on infectious disease control, the IHR revision process, the substantive changes contained in the new IHR and concerns regarding the future of the new IHR. The article demonstrates why the new IHR constitute a seminal event in the relationship between international law and public health and send messages about how human societies should govern their vulnerabilities to serious, acute disease events in the twenty-first century

Introductory Note to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2298

On July 22, 2016, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2298 supporting efforts by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to remove chemical weapons from Libya and facilitate their destruction in another country. This resolution was critical to the international effort to prevent chemical weapons in Libya from being at risk of acquisition by members of the so-called Islamic State operating in Libya

Introduction to Written Symposium on Public Health and International Law

Reflecting on the growing prominence of public health in world politics and international law, the Chicago Journal of International Law has chosen to devote attention to the dynamic relationship that exists between public health and international law today. This symposium provides a glimpse of the scope and diversity of areas in which international law and public health intersect, but it does not exhaust the public health/international law discourse. One theme the symposium pursues is the controversy regarding the impact that international legal protections for pharmaceutical patents have had on the access of developing countries to drugs and medicines. The symposium also reflects the contributors\u27 interest in national and global public health problems posed by infectious diseases, though this emphasis does not suggest that non-communicable diseases represent insignificant global public health problems that do not bear on the use or study of international law. CJIL hopes that the symposium not only focuses international legal analysis on the contributors\u27 topics, but also conveys the importance of international law and legal analysis to the current policy debates concerning how nations, international institutions, and global civil society work to improve human health globally. [CONT

Influenza Virus Samples, International Law, and Global Health Diplomacy

Indonesia’s decision to withhold samples of avian influenza virus A (H5N1) from the World Health Organization for much of 2007 caused a crisis in global health. The World Health Assembly produced a resolution to try to address the crisis at its May 2007 meeting. I examine how the parties to this controversy used international law in framing and negotiating the dispute. Specifically, I analyze Indonesia’s use of the international legal principle of sovereignty and its appeal to rules on the protection of biological and genetic resources found in the Convention on Biological Diversity. In addition, I consider how the International Health Regulations 2005 applied to the controversy. The incident involving Indonesia’s actions with virus samples illustrates both the importance and the limitations of international law in global health diplomacy