{"title":"The Rise and Fall and Rise of Pronatalism: A Disingenuous Policy that Harms the Health of People and Society.","authors":"Rasadokht Forati, Deborah Bartz","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.10129","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.10129","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pronatalist policies are on the rise in many countries. These have stemmed from several motivators, including economic concerns, nationalism, and promotion of traditional family values. As global fertility rates have fallen, many countries have instilled pronatalist policies to encourage people to have more children. In other countries, including the United States, religious traditionalism and nationalist forces have fueled pronatalist policies as a counter to improved female empowerment and global immigration. No matter the stated motivation, government-sanctioned pronatalism overtly leads to reproductive coercion or covertly results in limited reproductive autonomy as collateral damage. Herein, we review global examples of prior and current pronatalist policies, outlining the motivators for their promotion within each case. We demonstrate how these policies are not only ineffective, but are dangerous to the health and well-being of women and other populations and are in direct conflict with modern reproductive goals, reproductive justice, and decades of efforts towards achieving gender parity.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"435-443"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144638585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Expanding the Core Foundations of Global Health Law through a Pandemic Agreement.","authors":"Pedro A Villarreal","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.10151","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.10151","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The adoption of the main text of the Pandemic Agreement at the 2025 World Health Assembly is a milestone in global health law. The adopted text makes several key contributions, but there were several missed opportunities in the negotiating process, and key roadblocks remain for the future of the Pandemic Agreement.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"482-485"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144735016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Benjamin Mason Meier, Alexandra Finch, Roojin Habibi
{"title":"Global Health Law: Between Hard and Soft Law.","authors":"Benjamin Mason Meier, Alexandra Finch, Roojin Habibi","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.21","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.21","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The field of global health law encompasses both \"hard\" law treaties and \"soft\" law policies that shape global health norms. Transitioning from \"international health law\" to \"global health law and policy,\" global health policymakers have increasingly looked to soft law instruments to address public health needs in a rapidly globalizing world - within the World Health Organization and across global health governance. Yet, as policymakers have expanded the landscape of soft law policy instruments to advance global health across state and non-state actors, the COVID-19 response revealed the limitations of this soft law approach to global health threats, with states now seeking hard law reforms to strengthen global health governance. As hard and soft law can provide complementary approaches to preventing disease and promoting health, future research must conceptualize how these normative frameworks interact in advancing global health.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"11-15"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12174801/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144030579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Global Health Law as a Foundation for NCD Prevention - A Statement from a Believer.","authors":"Brigit Toebes","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/jme.2025.5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Over the past ten years, global health lawyers have actively engaged with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). A pivotal instrument in this regard is the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2003. Despite its open-ended wording, it has significantly influenced domestic tobacco regulation. For instance, thanks to this treaty, the Dutch government no longer engages with the tobacco industry and has (independent from the tobacco industry) implemented various tobacco control measures, resulting in a significant reduction in smoking. The treaty also serves as an exemplary model for the adoption of similar treaties to regulate other behavioral risk factors such as unhealthy diets and alcohol use, as well as broader environmental determinants.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":"53 S1","pages":"29"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144235757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nicole D Foster, Kimberley Benjamin, Pramiti Parwani, Katrina Perehudoff
{"title":"Universal Health Coverage and Social Protection: Evolution and Future Opportunities for Global Health Law and Equity.","authors":"Nicole D Foster, Kimberley Benjamin, Pramiti Parwani, Katrina Perehudoff","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.3","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>From its beginnings in the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata, universal health coverage (UHC) has been constantly evolving, notably so within the last ten years. Although the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, which identify both UHC and social protection among its targets, represent an important juncture in this evolution, several States are unlikely to meet the 2030 target deadline. This article traces the history of UHC and social (health) protection in global health law, focusing on their development over the past ten years. It concludes by reflecting on what the future of UHC and social (health) protection should look like and what is needed to fully realize their potential to achieve equity and to meaningfully contribute to the betterment of people and planet, highlighting human rights, One Health, legal and financial considerations as key for the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"35-39"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12174789/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144039894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reflections on Global Health Law Education.","authors":"Danwood M Chirwa","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.8","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Global health law has now emerged as an area of specialisation for students interested in global problems concerning health due largely, if not principally, to the inspiring lifelong scholarly work of Professor Lawrence Gostin. A growing number of universities in the world have established programs on global health law in which they address questions of equity and solidarity in addressing public health issues and emergencies, global and national preparedness for pandemics and other health related emergencies, international health regulations, and the intersection between health and human rights, to mention a few. We can expect that as global health threats and inequalities in access to health continue to rise, interest in global health law as a field of legal research and education will continue to grow.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143674161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reflections on the SDGs and UHC: Getting Shit Done.","authors":"Peter A Singer","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.7","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>I write in tribute to my friend Larry Gostin, who has long emphasized that accountability and governance are central to global health policy.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"34"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143722414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lisa Forman, Safura Abdool Karim, Omowamiwa Kolawole
{"title":"Global Health \"With Justice\": The Challenges and Opportunities for Human Rights in Global Health Law.","authors":"Lisa Forman, Safura Abdool Karim, Omowamiwa Kolawole","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.1","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human rights offer to ground global health law in equity and justice. Human rights norms, advocacy, and strategies have proven successes in challenging private and public inequities and in realizing more equitable domestic and global health governance. However, mobilizing human rights within global health law faces enormous political, economic, technological, and epidemiological challenges, including from the corrosive health impacts of power, politics, and commerce. This article focuses on what human rights could bring to three major global health law challenges - health systems strengthening and universal health coverage, the commercial and economic determinants of health, and pandemic disease threats. We argue that human rights offer potentially powerful norms and strategies for achieving equity and justice in these and other key global health domains. The challenge for those working in human rights and global health law is to work nimbly, creatively, and courageously to strengthen the contribution of these instruments to health justice.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"18-22"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143722235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Allan Maleche, Timothy Wafula, Sasha Stevenson, Tendai Mafuma
{"title":"Non-State Actors: The Increasing Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Global Health Law.","authors":"Allan Maleche, Timothy Wafula, Sasha Stevenson, Tendai Mafuma","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.6","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The participation of non-state actors in global health law has undergone tremendous change over the years, with non-state actors playing an increasingly important role in the formation of global health law - in terms of engagement in international health governance forums and health policy decision processes. Global health movements and advocacy groups dedicated to specific diseases (for instance HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) and health rights have been increasingly pivotal in ensuring that global health policies are rights-based. This article interrogates the role that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have played in shaping global health law. Looking at how the historical and traditional roles of NGOs have evolved over time, this article analyzes the contribution that NGOs have made in advancing and defining a rights-based approach to health.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"60-63"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144042250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tsung-Ling Lee, Sharifah Sekalala, Pedro Villarreal
{"title":"AI and Data Surveillance: Embedding a Human Rights-based Approach.","authors":"Tsung-Ling Lee, Sharifah Sekalala, Pedro Villarreal","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.17","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.17","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize public health surveillance by analyzing large datasets to detect outbreaks. However, privacy, consent, and governance issues persist. While the International Health Regulations do not explicitly mention the use of AI in infectious disease surveillance, transparent processes, accountability, and public trust are key for responsibly integrating AI in pandemic preparedness.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"70-74"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144054417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}