Content area
Abstract
Health risks in the 21st century are beyond the control of any government in any country. In an era of globalisation, promoting public health and equity requires cooperation and coordination both within and among states. Law can be a powerful tool for advancing global health, yet it remains substantially underutilised and poorly understood. Working in partnership, public health lawyers and health professionals can become champions for evidence-based laws to ensure the public’s health and safety. This Lancet Commission articulates the crucial role of law in achieving global health with justice, through legal instruments, legal capacities, and institutional reforms, as well as a firm commitment to the rule of law. The Commission’s aim is to enhance the global health community’s understanding of law, regulation, and the rule of law as effective tools to advance population health and equity.
Details
1 O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, USA
2 Office of the President, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
3 School of Law, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
4 Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Chicago, IL, USA
5 Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
6 Health and Environment, Government of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq
7 University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda
8 Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
9 UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland
10 DeLand Associates LLC, Geneva, Switzerland
11 Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice, World Bank Group, Washington, DC, USA
12 School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
13 Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
14 Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
15 Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK
16 National Academy of Sciences of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
17 Dejusticia, Bogota, Colombia
18 Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA