Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Global health law has become an established field of education, practice and research, with its importance as each of these being beyond doubt. At the same time, however, its definition remains elusive and subject to peculiar contest. Discourses on what it is, or is about, result in the advancing of challenging contrasts, paradoxes, contradictions and concessions. Against that background, this paper addresses global health law’s ‘coherence anxiety’. It is argued that particular definitional problems emerge where it is assumed or given that global health law is somehow a sub-field or sub-discipline of international law; that its distinction comes in its concerning ‘global law’ and ‘health’, rather than ‘global health’ and ‘law’. It is, of course, the case that the practical, institutional and governance ‘space’ of global health inevitably presents a key role for public international law and international health law. However, on examination, it is less than obvious that international law should be seen as the pivotal concern, less still defining, of the field. Insofar as an established reference point might provide a basis, frame or model for global health law, the field of public health law, rather than the discipline of international law, offers the more suited area.
Source: Journal of Global Health Law
Author: John Coggon
Institution: University of Bristol
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: Wellcome Trust, Scottish Government, Cancer Research UK, National Institute for Health and Care Research, British Heart Foundation, Public Health Agency, Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate, Medical Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Natural Environment Research Council, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division
OpenAlex ID: W4406268528