International Health Law (6 ECTS)

Lecturer(s): Prof. Dr B.C.A. Toebes (coordinator)

When: Block 2

Brief course description:
This module focuses on international standards relevant for the protection of health. These include the standards adopted by the Wold Health Organization (WHO), human rights law, domestic health law, as well as international humanitarian law, intellectual property law and medical-ethical standards. Attention will be paid to ‘international health law’ as an emerging field of international law. Human rights law, in particular the right to health, plays an important role in this field.

Topics that will be covered (subject to change) are:
1) health security threats, including the spread of infectious diseases and man-made and natural disasters - with a particular focus on the recent ebola crisis;
2) global and domestic health inequalities and access to healthcare services and essential medicines, including the drafting of domestic legislation on essential medicines, and the position of vulnerable persons in healthcare settings, with a particular emphasis on migrants and women (reproductive health);
3) the tension between international trade and the protection of health, including the role and position of the pharmaceutical industry and of the food industry.

Students will have to study and critically reflect upon these health-related themes, in light of the relevant international standards. Specific individual or group assignments will be part of the preparations for class, which may touch on, for example, an envisaged text of a Framework Convention for Global Health and/or domestic model legislation in the field of health. Each student will have to give a presentation on a specific topic of his or her choice, in preparation of his or her individual paper.

Several guest lecturers will share their specific expertise in this course (including Professor Hans Hogerzeil from UMCG and Professor Aart Hendriks from Leiden University).

Teaching method:
The module is divided into 14lectures of two hours each, requiring active participation of the whole group under guidance of the lecturer.

Assessment: Paper, presentation(s), written exam (essay questions) or oral exam, depending on the number of participants.

*Official course information and schedules during the academic year can be found in Ocasys.