Studies On The International Law Issues On Infectious Diseases Control

I address myself to the international law issues relating to infectious diseases prevention and control in this dissertation. In order to open out the deficiencies of the international legal mechanism on infectious diseases control and its future design, the dissertation tries to probe into the role of various international legal regimes in infectious diseases control and their limitations.This dissertation is structured in seven parts:Foreword is arranged to present the current state of the research on this problem and the value of this selected topic.Exordium mainly analyzes the role that international law plays in dealing with the challenge of the globalization of infectious diseases, and introduces various international legal regimes in brief.Chapter one contains World Health Organization (WHO) and its legal system, which continues the practice of international health law since 1851. As the only global intergovernmental health organization, WHO undertakes important health functions. But WHO have not fully used its quasi-lawmaking power. Being out of date, narrow, and null, International Health Regulations fails to get rid of the vicious circle of health treaties since 1851, that is, "contract→lapse→revise→relapse→re-revise". Again, WHO bring forward the draft revised IHR, which proposes radical reform, in order to deal with the challenge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. In addition, WHO's "soft law" also works on infectious disease control, but its force is limited.Chapter two analyzes World Trade Organization (WTO)'s impact on infectious diseases control. Based on the relations between law of WTO and public health, this chapter study respectively SPS, TRIPS, and GATS, and explores their obverse or/and adverse impact on the prevention of food-borne diseases, accessibility of medicine, and health care. By rights of the strong mechanism of dispute settlement, agreements of WTO become the most influential international law relating to infectious diseases control. However, as rules on trade, their adverse effects on health need to be rectified.Chapter three's focus is the linkage between international environmental law and infectious diseases control, involved with natural environment protection, health of plants and animals, bio-safe, and bio-security. This legal regime also forms the important part of the international legal system relating to infectious diseases, but itmostly deal with infectious diseases control indirectly, consequently, should be strengthened.Chapter four explores the infectious diseases control importance of international law on human rights. Protection of human rights is not only governments' international law obligation, but also a key strategy of diseases control. Civil and political rights involve governments' active and inactive responsibilities, including the conditions the restriction or derogation of rights must conform to. Economic, social and cultural rights, above all, right to health, directly involve governments' duty to take necessary steps to control infectious disease. Particularly, rights of women are vital to HIV/AIDS prevention and control. All materials and analysis reveal that, international law on human rights is the only regime that directly deals with domestic infectious diseases control.Chapter five tries to discuss China's compliance policy about international law on infectious diseases from the view of "peaceful development" of China. In the age of globalization, China should participate in the international legal mechanism on infectious diseases control, and roundly improve its domestic law involved, and combine international health law's implementation with state sovereign and public health.Epilogue macroscopically provides a comprehensive consideration on the international legal mechanism on infectious diseases control, including the deficiency and its improvement. In the end, the paper emphasis that the new international order is the key to resolve the puzzledom of international infectious diseases control, i.e., the problem of sovereign and development.