Law Commons^™

Implementing Public Health Regulations In Developing Countries: Lessons From The Oecd Countries, Lawrence O. Gostin, Emily A. Mok, Monica Das Gupta, Max Levin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The enforcement of public health standards is a common problem in many developing countries. Public health agencies lack sufficient resources and, too often, enforcement mechanisms rely on slow and erratic judicial systems. These limitations can make traditional public health regulations difficult to implement. In this article, we examine innovative approaches to the implementation of public health regulations that have emerged in recent years within OECD countries. These approaches aim to improve compliance with health standards, while reducing dependence on both the legal system and the administrative resources of public health agencies.

This article begins by discussing some traditional forms of …

The Joint Action And Learning Initiative On National And Global Responsibilities For Health, Lawrence O. Gostin, Gorik Ooms, Mark Heywood, Just Haffeld, Sigrun Møgedal, John-Arne Røttingen, Eric A. Friedman, Harald Siem

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A population’s health and wellbeing is primarily a national responsibility. Every state owes all of its inhabitants a comprehensive package of essential health goods and services under its obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the human right to health. Yet health is also a global responsibility. Every state has a duty to ensure a safe and healthy world, with particular attention to the needs of the world’s poorest people. Improving health and reducing unconscionable health inequalities is both an international obligation under the human right to health and a matter of global social justice.

The mutual obligations of states to …

National And Global Responsibilities For Health, Lawrence O. Gostin, Mark Heywood, Gorik Ooms, Anand Grover, John-Arne Røttingen, Wang Chenguang

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Preventable and treatable injuries and diseases are overwhelming sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and other impoverished areas of the world. Why are health outcomes among the world’s poor so dire after the first decade of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and despite a quadrupling of international health assistance over the past two decades? We believe that this dynamic can change by establishing clearer understandings of, and forging consensus around and governance structures to support, national and global responsibilities to improve global health.

With the goal of a new post-MDG global health paradigm, we are establishing the Joint Action and Learning …

Rights Talk And Patient Subjectivity: The Role Of Autonomy, Equality And Participation Norms, Nan D. Hunter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Patients themselves have transformed the role of the patient in the health care system, making it far more complex than it ever has been before. As a result, the conceptual root of our contemporary understandings of “patient” is an assumption of autonomous subjectivity, i.e., of an individual aware of and capable of acting on her choices for medical care. The Symposium on Patient-Centered Health Law and Ethics of which this Article is a part considers the most recent stage in this evolution of meanings: the concept of patient-centeredness, with its implication of provider deference to the patient’s perspective. Throughout the …

The O’Neill Institute For National And Global Health Law: Discovering Innovative Solutions For The Most Pressing Health Problems Facing The Nation And The World, Lawrence O. Gostin, Oscar A. Cabrera, Susan C. Kim

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The connection between health and an individual’s ability to function in society, as well as the importance of health to a society’s economic, political, and social wellbeing necessitates finding innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing health problems. The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University seeks to demonstrate the role that academia can play in addressing complex national and global health problems in a comprehensive, evidence-based, intellectually-rigorous, and nonpartisan manner. The O’Neill Institute currently has three research programs: global health law, national health law, and the center for disease prevention and outcomes. Projects within these …