Series

Governing global health in times of pandemic

Joint initiative of the Faculty of Law and the School of International Studies of the University of Trento

28 November 2022
29 November 2022
Organizer: 
Facoltà di Giurisprudenza e Scuola di Studi internazionali

The COVID19 pandemic has inspired new streams of research in all fields of science, from life sciences to social studies, from humanities to hard sciences, from theoretical to empirical studies.

Developing pre-existing and emerging lines of research in all these areas, the University of Trento has coordinated several international projects to contribute to a science-based response to the pandemic. An interdisciplinary approach has characterized many of these projects, based on the belief that no science alone may provide a sufficiently sound answer to global challenges like the one faced during the pandemic.

Moving from this perspective, the School of International Studies and the Faculty of Law have led two international projects in the last two years in the field of global health and fundamental rights: respectively, a project on the functions, limits and territorial impact of the World Health Organization in the COVID-19 emergency (School of International Studies) and a project on COVID-19 litigation  raised by the pandemic and, more particularly, by the impact of public health measures upon fundamental rights (Faculty of Law). Though developed from different perspectives (the former focused on the institutional framework and the role played by international institutions, such as WHO, and the latter focused on the role of courts in the difficult task of balancing health policy needs with fundamental rights and freedoms), the two projects share a common interest in contributing to an international and interdisciplinary debate on global health governance in times of pandemic or comparable health crises.

Based on this, both projects’ results will be presented and discussed within a two-days joint initiative co-coordinated by the School of International Studies and the Faculty of Law with a view to explore future research perspectives beyond the current pandemic context.