Introduction to Written Symposium on Public Health and International Law

Reflecting on the growing prominence of public health in world politics and international law, the Chicago Journal of International Law has chosen to devote attention to the dynamic relationship that exists between public health and international law today. This symposium provides a glimpse of the scope and diversity of areas in which international law and public health intersect, but it does not exhaust the public health/international law discourse. One theme the symposium pursues is the controversy regarding the impact that international legal protections for pharmaceutical patents have had on the access of developing countries to drugs and medicines. The symposium also reflects the contributors' interest in national and global public health problems posed by infectious diseases, though this emphasis does not suggest that non-communicable diseases represent insignificant global public health problems that do not bear on the use or study of international law.

CJIL hopes that the symposium not only focuses international legal analysis on the contributors' topics, but also conveys the importance of international law and legal analysis to the current policy debates concerning how nations, international institutions, and global civil society work to improve human health globally. [CONT]