Soft Law and Global Health Problems: Lessons from Responses to HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis

by Sharifah Sekalala

Overview

Various legal approaches have been taken internationally to improve global access to essential medicines for people in developing countries. This book focuses on the millions of people suffering from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Beginning with the AIDS campaign for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, Sharifah Sekalala argues that a soft law approach is more effective than hard law by critiquing the current TRIPS flexibilities within the World Trade Organization. She then considers how soft law has also been instrumental in the fight against malaria and tuberculosis. Using these compelling case studies, this book explores lawmaking on global health and analyses the viability of current global health financing trends within new and traditional organisations such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UNITAID and The Global Fund. This book is essential reading for legal, development, policy and health scholars, activists and policymakers working across political economy, policy studies and global health studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108178747
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Sharifah Sekalala is a public international lawyer and development practitioner with experience in research and policy in resource-constrained settings. She has expertise in trade and development, and global health, with particular emphasis on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. She is also an Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick, where her research focuses on the intersection between international law and global health, particularly with regard to norms in global health financing. Previously, Sharifah worked in the International Bar Association in London and practised as an advocate in Uganda.

Table of Contents

1. Framing international legal responses to global health; 2. Hard law and soft law in the global context; 3. Hard law and access to ARVs: examining intellectual property rights; 4. Hard law and access to ARVs: examining the right to health; 5. The soft approach: the Doha Declaration on Public Health; 6. The soft approach: greater access to ARVs within the United Nations; 7. Examining soft law in action: the 3 by 5 initiative and The Global Fund; 8. The case of tuberculosis and malaria; 9. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

'The book … is an important contribution to a critical assessment of how well international law serves its purpose on the normative level. Using the global reaction to the global problems of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, the author makes a strong contribution both on theoretical and empirical levels.' Sigrun Skogly, Journal of Law and Society

'In her impressive monograph Soft Law and Global Health Problems, Sharifah Sekalala offers an innovative and meticulously argued legal perspective on the struggle over intellectual property and access to essential medicines in the global south.' John Harrington, Social and Legal Studies

From the Publisher