94.
Karl Stoeger, Martina Schmidhuber,
The use of data from electronic health records in times of a pandemic—a legal and ethical assessment, 2020.06.16,
https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/7/1/lsaa041/5856456?searchresult=1 .
National electronic health record systems are becoming increasingly common. During a pandemic, data stored in such records could be used by health authorities to identify persons with a particular health risk. In this contribution, the authors focus on the question whether such state access to data could be disadvantageous to a person’s state of health in the long run. It follows that, even in times of a pandemic, access to personal data stored in patient-controlled health records should be used as a last resort only.
93.
Meredith Van Natta, Paul Chen, etc.,
The rise and regulation of thermal facial recognition technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020.06.18,
https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsaa038 .
As the current COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe, governments and corporations are turning to novel uses of biometric technologies to limit contagion and maintain economic opportunities. This raises important questions about the potential privacy implications of the widespread collection and use of such personal data. Recognizing that these emergent technologies may become entrenched long after this public health crisis subsides, this article focused on the case of fever checks and thermal facial recognition technology to illustrate the current state of the technology, existing policies related to its use, and suggestions for proactive policies to govern its deployment during and beyond the present pandemic.
92.
Michele Ferrante,
Managing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on IP contracts governed by Chinese law: the SPC’s Guiding Opinion on force majeure, 2020.10.22,
https://academic.oup.com/jiplp/article/15/9/689/5935548?searchresult=1 .
The current COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken by public authorities to control it have been causing disruptions across all sectors of society, When it comes to IP-related contracts, these effects have been equally disruptive. Licences often contain provisions for the payment of royalties, or other obligations such as minimum purchases or sales, which may become difficult to fulfil in a highly unsettled business environment. China was one of the first jurisdictions to clarify the extent to which the pandemic and the measures implemented by governments to contain it could fulfil the requirements of force majeure to excuse non-performance.
91.
Neil Levy, Julian Savulescu,
Epistemic responsibility in the face of a pandemic, 2020.5.28,
https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/7/1/lsaa033/5848139?searchresult=1 .
This paper argues that deference is required with regard to settled science: non-experts ought to defer with regard to climate science and the efficacy of vaccines. However, it suggests that this deference is warranted because these questions have been appropriately probed many times by many different kinds of people. While non-experts should defer to epidemiologists with regard to matters within the sphere of epidemiology specifically, responding to the pandemic requires expertise from many fields. We best build a consensus worth deferring to by contributing our expertise now.
90.
Anna Kohte,
Vulnerability in times of Corona-Guidelines from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the Right to Health, 2020.5.28,
https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/vulnerability-in-times-of-corona/ .
The health emergency due to COVID-19 has reached Latin America with its full strength. The pandemic poses considerable challenges to this region, characterized by profound inequalities, as the virus has a disproportionate effect on people in vulnerable situations, such as indigenous communities, Afro-descendants and workers in the informal sector. In order to prevent further impact of the pandemic, special attention should be paid to those for whom it is difficult to take basic measures to prevent infection and even more difficult to reach health centers.
89.
Audrey Lebret,
COVID-19 pandemic and derogation to human rights, 2020.5.4,
https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/7/1/lsaa015/5828398 .
Under international human rights law, States can limit the exercise of most human rights if it is necessary to protect the rights of others or collective interests. The exceptional circumstances brought by the COVID-19 global pandemic lead to more extensive restrictions of human rights than in usual times. This article introduces the States’ specific right to derogate to human rights in circumstances of public emergency and the conditions of a legitimate derogation in the context of COVID-19. It argues that States must ensure that the general measures they adopt to face the crisis do not disproportionally harm vulnerable people.
88.
Julian A. Hettihewa and Anna Holzscheiter,,
Reclaiming the Voice of Youth: Pandemic Politics and Law and the Invisibility of Youth, 2020.12.3,
https://www.ejiltalk.org/reclaiming-the-voice-of-youth-pandemic-politics-and-law-and-the-invisibility-of-youth/ .
This blog post argues that there is an acute need to recognize the agency and creative will of young people in the context of political, legal, economic and societal responses to the pandemic. Recognizing both young people’s affection and their agency requires international law – as practice and as a scholarly discipline – to take into account the perspectives and experiences of young people in a systematic manner. And not only this: international law should actively advocate and defend the right to meaningful representation and participation of young people in pandemic politics and law, nationally and internationally.
87.
Janine Natalya Clark,
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Ecological Connectivity: Implications for International Criminal Law and Transitional Justice, 2020.12.21,
https://academic.oup.com/jicj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jicj/mqaa057/6042607?searchresult=1 .
This interdisciplinary article reflects on the significance of the pandemic through a focus on the key concept of ecological connectivity. Examining the pandemic through the lens of ecological connectivity, the article also theorizes it (and zoonotic diseases more generally) as a violation of this connectivity. Its key argument is that war crimes and human rights violations can themselves be viewed, in part, as violations of ecological connectivity. This theorization, in turn, provides a novel basis for thinking about the wider ecological dimensions and legacies of war crimes and gross violations of human rights, and, by extension, the potential role of international criminal law and transitional justice in helping to restore damaged connectivities through a relational approach to justice.
86.
Nicolas Paleiron, Aurélie Mayet, etc.,
Impact of Tobacco Smoking on the risk of COVID-19.A large scale retrospective cohort study, 2021.01.09,
https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntab004 .
The group investigated the association between smoking and COVID-19 during an outbreak of the disease on a naval vessel and found that further research on nicotine physiological pathway was needed and its impact on COVID-19 infection whilst emphasizing that tobacco smoking should not be considered as an efficient protection against COVID-19.
85.
Eun Young Choi, Mateo P Farina, etc.,
COVID-19 Social Distancing Measures and Loneliness Among Older Adults, 2021.01.11,
https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbab009 .
This study investigates (1) whether social distancing measures, particularly limiting close social interactions, are associated with loneliness among older adults, and (2) whether the association between social distancing measures and loneliness is moderated by sociodemographic characteristics. The study suggests that efforts should be made to help older adults maintain social connectedness with close others by virtual communication methods and calls special attention to vulnerable groups at elevated risks of loneliness, emphasizing the need for tailored interventions.
Beijing Interest Group on Global Health and Global Governance
Contact: secretary@bigghgg.cn