Reforming International Health Law: Towards a New Era of Pandemic Response?

Abstract

The guest lecture will discuss ongoing reform processes of existing international law rules regarding the cross-border spread of disease. The focus will be on the legal instruments within the World Health Organization, namely the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005 and a new Convention on pandemic preparedness and response. The presentation will address different aspects of these parallel reform processes, including some key challenges for their approval.  

Speaker

Pedro A. Villarreal, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg, Germany)

Bio

Pedro A. Villarreal is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. He conducts research on international and comparative law on human health issues, as well as the intersections with international economic law. He received his PhD in Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). His book, "Pandemics and Law: A Global Governance Perspective" (published in 2019 in Spanish) was awarded the Prize for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Law and Social Sciences at said University. He is a member, among other associations, of the Global Health Law Consortium, the Global Health Law Committee of the International Law Association, and the German Alliance for Global Health Research. He is currently member of the editorial board of the Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to COVID-19.