The Rise of International Health Law

Abstract

In recent decades, demographic processes, economic shocks, increased morbidity and other systemic problems have led to the gradual appearance at the international level of a whole spectrum of threats to health, characterized by severe socio-economic consequences for each country regardless of the welfare level. Today, the challenges of ensuring universal coverage of services, access to safe, high-quality medicines, affordable healthcare, effective response to health emergencies, and antibiotic resistance are not limited to WHO regulations, but are included in the agendas of the United Nations, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other intergovernmental organizations. The need to form a unified approach to regulate the activities of numerous participants in international healthcare regulation has served as an incentive for the gradual development of international legal regulation of the field of health protection, becoming the subject of study of leading legal scholars, as well as international organizations. The present article provides a comprehensive analysis of the main historical stages in the development of international cooperation in the field of health protection, which served as the basis for the formation of international health law in the field of health protection as a new branch of international law. Special attention is paid to the assessment of the role of globalization processes in changing the nature of threats to human and public health and their impact on the formation of the concept of global health governance. Based on the systemic problems that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, the author formulates the main areas for improvement in the international legal regulation of the health sector.

 The research portion involved studying the following documents: acts of a universal and regional nature; resolutions of international organizations; and the legal positions of UN Specialized Agencies, as well as of professional scientific associations. The theoretical basis of the research is the scientific works of Russian and foreign experts in international law and international relations in the field of health protection. The article was prepared using the general scientific method of cognition, including the formal logical and situational method and private law methods, such as comparative, historical and formal legal methods.

The paper formulates a conclusion about the creation of “international health law” as a new branch of international law, uniting international legal norms and principles governing the relations of subjects of international law, as well as other participants ininternational relations in the field of human health. In the work, the author presents the main sources of “international health law” and formulates the subject of regulation of this branch of law.Describing the features of international cooperation in the field of health protection, expressed in an increase in the number of involved international organizations and other participants who are not subjects of international law, the author substantiates the formation of the concept of global health management and analyzes the main scientific publications in this area. Having studied the nature of health threats that have formed over the past decade under the influence of globalization processes, as well as the systematic problems of international cooperation demonstrated by the coronavirus pandemic, the authors emphasize the need to implement the repeatedly proposed initiative to develop a universal act that forms the basis of international legal regulation of health protection.