19th and 20th April 2007

  

Liverpool

  

Liverpool Law School, Liverpool

 

The first seminar has two main concerns, both theoretical, one philosophical, the other sociological. Although a right to health is expressly recognized in the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) it is not well established in theory or jurisprudential practice at domestic or international level. Libertarian philosophers, such as Robert Nozick, have challenged the relevance and coherence of human rights in the health field. These arguments resonate in law - legal (and moral) duties to be capable of fulfilment can only be negative or defensive, not positive. This categorical qualification comes to us from Immanuel Kant by way of the more recent work of Isaiah Berlin. This rules out welfare rights, including the right to health, as justiciable rights. It is argued that if we persist in claiming a right to health, then that claim is purely a matter of rhetoric.

 

This seminar seeks to put the ‘right to health debate’ in its contemporary context. Our era is characterized by increasing global regulation of health policy, either directly, through the World Health Organization (WHO), or indirectly through the work of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank. This is quite apart from the non-state power exercised by corporations and non-governmental organizations, including the power to create normative regimes affecting health. On what grounds, if at all, can we formulate a right to health capable of guiding and constraining these actors? How can we learn from the enforcement problems of the past including those arising under the UN’s ICESCR regime? If the ‘right’ is really only a matter of rhetoric, is it nonetheless worth articulating. Its possible value may be seen from the widespread public support for and media attention on global ethical causes, like poverty reduction, fair trade and access to AIDS drugs. 

 

The second area of concern to theorists is sociological. In order to enforce and vindicate a right to health, it is necessary to have an adequate understanding of the global, national and local orderings within which such a right would be articulated. The literature on globalization and global governance is now enormous. This has tended to track more obvious economic and political changes. However, specific work on health governance has been more rare. Given greater international involvement in health promotion (e.g. through the WHO or the Global Fund), as well as increased concern regarding global epidemics, a critical review of the regulatory system is timely. This part of the seminar will focus on the role of (state and non-state) law in responding to health threats. It will seek to clarify the relevant actors influencing law creation and enforcement. It will bring together specialists in global health law, as well as general theorists of global politics and law. The distinctive perspectives of liberal, neo-Keynesian, cosmopolitan or neo-Marxist schools will be brought to bear on the specific issues raised by health.

 

Download the programme here

 

Speakers include:

 

• Professor Paul Hunt (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health) – ‘Reflections on Implementing the Right to Health’

 

 • Professor Upendra Baxi (University of Warwick) - 'The Place of the Human Right to Health. Contemporary Approaches to Global Justice; Some Impertinent Interrogations'

 

• Dr Brigit Toebes (University of Aberdeen) - 'Taking a Human Rights Approach to Health Care Commercialisation'

 

• Professor John Harris & Dr Muireann Quigley (University of Manchester) on the ethical limits of global organ markets.

 

• Professor Robyn Martin (University of Hertfordshire) - 'Comparative National Population Health Laws And Comparative Approaches To Human Rights: Seeking Global Health In A Disparate World'

 

• Professor Udo Schüklenk (Glasgow Caledonian University) - 'The 10/90 Gap in International Health Research - Drug R&D: Whose Moral Responsibility is it?'

 

• Professor Simon Caney (University of Oxford) - 'Global Justice, Health and Climate Change'

 

• Dr Lisa Forman (University of Toronto)  - 'What Future for the Minimum Core? From the Margins to the Centre: The International Right to Health and the South African Experience'

 

• Professor Roger Brownsword (King's College London)  - 'The Ancillary-Care Responsibilities of Researchers: Reasonable But Not Great Expectations'

 

 

 

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