COVID-19 and The Populist Governments Approach to Pandemic Management: A Nuanced Analysis

This article addresses international law discourse in the post- COVID-19 era. The first part engages with questions about China, its liability, and the complex legal discourse on causation. The present position of the WHO is that COVID-19 is a zoonotic virus like SARS. The nature of the spillover event remains unclear, but the first human case was identified at some point in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

For the reasons outlined in Part I, the scholarly consensus has been that claims against China appear unjustifiable. The two case studies in Part II demonstrate the factors involved in local pandemic management in two major countries, the United Kingdom and India. Part III discusses the issues of multiple causes and overdetermination, discourse on international law, and the resumption of progress.