COVID-19, Law, and Regulation: Rights, Freedoms, and Obligations in a Pandemic

COVID-19 is the most severe pandemic the world has experienced in a century. This book analyses major legal and regulatory responses internationally to COVID-19, and the impact the pandemic has had on human rights and freedoms, governance, the obligations of states and individuals, as well the role of the World Health Organization and other international bodies during this time.

The authors examine notable legal challenges to public health measures enforced during the pandemic, such as lockdown orders, curfews, and vaccine mandates. Importantly, the book contextualizes the legal analysis by examining the broader social and economic dimensions of risks posed by the pandemic.

The book considers how COVID-19 impacted the operation of the criminal justice system, civil litigation concerning negligently caused deaths and business losses arising from contractual breaches, consumer protection litigation, disciplinary regulation of health practitioners, coronial inquests and other investigations of unexpected deaths, and occupational health and safety issues. The book reflects on the role of the law in facilitating the remarkable scientific and epidemiological achievements during the pandemic, but also the challenges of ensuring the swift production and equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines. It concludes by considering the possibilities that the legal and regulatory responses to this pandemic have illuminated for effectively tackling future global health crises.

table of content

1:COVID-19, Law, and Regulation

2:Past Legal and Regulatory Responses to Infectious Diseases

3:A Global Emergency

4:Restrictions on Interstate and International Movement

5:Domestic Laws and Emergency Measures

6:Legal Challenges to Emergency Orders

7:Risk, Impact, and Disadvantage

8:Criminal Justice Issues and the COVID-19 Pandemic

9:Civil Liability, Regulation, and Accountability

10:COVID-19 and Workplace and Occupational Health and Safety

11:Development of COVID-19 Treatments and Vaccines

12:Production, Regulation, and Distribution of COVID-19 Treatments, and Vaccines

13:Law, Regulation, and Rights: Reflections on the COVID-19 Pandemic