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Global Health Law: Between Hard and Soft Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2025

Benjamin Mason Meier Open the ORCID record for Benjamin Mason Meier [Opens in a new window] ,
Alexandra Finch  and
Roojin Habibi
Benjamin Mason Meier*
Affiliation:
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Alexandra Finch
Affiliation:
O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, United States
Roojin Habibi
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
*
Corresponding author: Benjamin Mason Meier; Email: bmeier@unc.edu
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Abstract

The field of global health law encompasses both “hard” law treaties and “soft” law policies that shape global health norms. Transitioning from “international health law” to “global health law and policy,” global health policymakers have increasingly looked to soft law instruments to address public health needs in a rapidly globalizing world – within the World Health Organization and across global health governance. Yet, as policymakers have expanded the landscape of soft law policy instruments to advance global health across state and non-state actors, the COVID-19 response revealed the limitations of this soft law approach to global health threats, with states now seeking hard law reforms to strengthen global health governance. As hard and soft law can provide complementary approaches to preventing disease and promoting health, future research must conceptualize how these normative frameworks interact in advancing global health.

Keywords

global health lawglobal health governanceinternational lawsoft lawWorld Health Organization

Information

Type
Symposium Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 53 , Issue S1: 10 Years of Global Health Law , Spring 2025 , pp. 11 - 15
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

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