Legal Issues Related to COVID-19 Under International Law

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is an event of public health of international concern with extraordinary negative impacts on international community. Some legal issues have been raised by someone who accused Chinese failing to cooperate with World Health Organization and other countries to prevent spread of coronavirus over the world. In fact, several cases have been filed in the federal courts of the United States. This situation makes necessary for legal response. Against theses backgrounds, this paper argues the merits to respond such accusations in accordance with the international laws, focusing on three legal issues, first, to distinguish the general obligations of international cooperation for global health under Constitution of World Health Organization from the special obligations in fighting COVID-19 according to International Health Regulation, secondly, to demonstrate that China did not break these obligations based on the public records or disclosed evidences, and finally, to discuss the litigations in the United States against China from the perspectives of customary international law of the jurisdictional immunity of a state from another state. The method used by this paper is mainly normative analysis to interpret the relevant treaties and to review the cases of international and domestic courts in order to clarify what are the international obligations imposed on China in combating COVID-19 and what are the customary international laws related to the domestic jurisdiction on any cases against China. The conclusion of this paper is that China has not violated any international health laws and the customary international law of sovereignty immunity does not permit any domestic jurisdiction in this regard.